Grallator

Grallator is an ichnogenus which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Grallator-type footprints have been found in formations dating from the Early Triassic through to the early Cretaceous periods. They are found in the United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia, Brazil and China, but are most abundant on the east coast of North America, especially the Triassic and Early Jurassic formations of the northern part of the Newark Supergroup. The name Grallator translates into "stilt walker", although the actual length and form of the trackmaking legs varied by species, usually unidentified. The related term "Grallae" is an ancient name for the presumed group of long-legged wading birds, such as storks and herons. These footprints were given this name by their discoverer, Edward Hitchcock, in 1858.

A picture published with the record for Grallator.

Safranes at English Wikipedia · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GrallatoridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 248.6 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 250.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Permian — about 0 of 432 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 1 of 432 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 432 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 146 of 432 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 233 of 432 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 16 of 432 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 10 of 432 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 23 of 432 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 432 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 432 occurrences254–248 Mya — about 1 occurrence248–242 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences242–235 Mya — about 4 occurrences235–229 Mya — about 13 occurrences229–222 Mya — about 22 occurrences222–216 Mya — about 25 occurrences216–210 Mya — about 27 occurrences210–203 Mya — about 38 occurrences203–197 Mya — about 151 occurrences197–190 Mya — about 58 occurrences190–184 Mya — about 27 occurrences184–178 Mya — about 9 occurrences178–171 Mya — about 7 occurrences171–165 Mya — about 11 occurrences165–158 Mya — about 3 occurrences158–152 Mya — about 4 occurrences152–146 Mya — about 4 occurrences146–139 Mya — about 4 occurrences139–133 Mya — about 5 occurrences133–126 Mya — about 1 occurrence126–120 Mya — about 6 occurrences120–114 Mya — about 3 occurrences114–107 Mya — about 3 occurrences107–101 Mya — about 2 occurrences101–94 Mya — about 1 occurrence94–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–82 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences82–75 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences75–69 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences69–62 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences248.6 Mya83.6 Mya254 Mya62 Mya

432 occurrences of Grallator on record, most of them in the Early Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

432 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

102 formations

Portland — 42.61°N, 72.51°WPortland — 42.28°N, 72.56°WPortland — 42.61°N, 72.55°WPortland — 41.69°N, 72.64°WPortland — 42.16°N, 72.58°WPortland — 41.55°N, 72.69°WPortland — 41.73°N, 72.66°WPortland — 41.57°N, 72.64°WPortland — 42.13°N, 72.61°WPortland — 42.26°N, 72.52°WPassaic — 40.57°N, 75.10°WPassaic — 40.22°N, 75.43°WPassaic — 40.55°N, 75.03°WPassaic — 40.53°N, 75.06°WPassaic — 40.83°N, 74.11°WPassaic — 40.75°N, 74.19°WPassaic — 40.29°N, 75.80°WPassaic — 40.62°N, 75.16°WPassaic — 40.26°N, 75.73°WPassaic — 40.27°N, 75.86°WPassaic — 40.24°N, 75.59°WPassaic — 40.88°N, 74.19°WPassaic — 40.81°N, 74.04°WEast Berlin — 41.34°N, 72.77°WEast Berlin — 42.26°N, 72.61°WEast Berlin — 42.24°N, 72.66°WEast Berlin — 42.20°N, 72.64°WEast Berlin — 41.65°N, 72.66°WWingate Sandstone — 35.86°N, 111.11°WWingate Sandstone — 37.86°N, 111.31°WWingate Sandstone — 39.03°N, 108.64°WWingate Sandstone — 36.86°N, 111.61°WWingate Sandstone — 38.85°N, 108.48°WWingate Sandstone — 38.52°N, 110.01°WWingate Sandstone — 38.62°N, 109.67°WWingate Sandstone — 38.51°N, 109.61°WWingate Sandstone — 38.70°N, 109.69°WWingate Sandstone — 35.91°N, 111.27°WWingate Sandstone — 39.06°N, 108.67°WWingate Sandstone — 38.62°N, 108.94°WWingate Sandstone — 39.09°N, 109.12°WWingate Sandstone — 37.95°N, 110.47°WNavajo Sandstone — 40.59°N, 109.43°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.00°N, 112.01°WNavajo Sandstone — 38.52°N, 109.66°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.03°N, 111.20°WNavajo Sandstone — 38.58°N, 109.52°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.38°N, 110.73°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.03°N, 111.36°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.25°N, 110.90°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.00°N, 112.81°WNavajo Sandstone — 37.35°N, 110.77°WElliot — 29.47°S, 27.47°EElliot — 30.22°S, 27.52°EElliot — 30.40°S, 27.69°EElliot — 29.36°S, 27.61°EElliot — 30.35°S, 27.60°EClarens — 28.90°S, 28.00°EClarens — 29.63°S, 27.52°EClarens — 30.40°S, 27.52°EClarens — 29.85°S, 27.25°EClarens — 29.12°S, 27.85°EClarens — 29.62°S, 27.57°EMoenave — 35.93°N, 111.16°WMoenave — 37.10°N, 113.53°WMoenave — 37.21°N, 112.12°WMoenave — 37.16°N, 113.01°WMoenave — 37.09°N, 113.56°WMoenave — 37.12°N, 112.54°WMoenave — 37.01°N, 113.40°WKayenta — 36.10°N, 111.24°WKayenta — 37.02°N, 113.36°WKayenta — 37.06°N, 112.28°WKayenta — 37.23°N, 113.34°WKayenta — 37.15°N, 113.49°WKayenta — 37.16°N, 113.50°WTurners Falls — 42.61°N, 72.53°WTuchengzi — 41.20°N, 120.31°ETuchengzi — 41.67°N, 120.71°ETuchengzi — 40.79°N, 115.89°ETuchengzi — 40.67°N, 116.31°ETuchengzi — 41.74°N, 120.94°EMcCoy Brook — 45.40°N, 64.21°WMcCoy Brook — 45.40°N, 64.11°WNavajo-Nugget Sandstone — 40.46°N, 109.31°WNavajo-Nugget Sandstone — 40.44°N, 109.29°WNavajo-Nugget Sandstone — 42.09°N, 111.26°WChinle — 38.65°N, 108.91°WChinle — 40.58°N, 109.42°WChinle — 38.00°N, 111.13°WChinle — 34.94°N, 109.76°WChinle — 34.81°N, 109.88°WGettysburg — 39.70°N, 77.33°WGettysburg — 40.16°N, 76.80°WGettysburg — 40.00°N, 77.06°WRedonda — 34.98°N, 103.64°WRedonda — 34.95°N, 103.43°WRedonda — 34.95°N, 103.44°WFengjiahe — 24.46°N, 102.30°ESheep Pen Sandstone — 36.94°N, 103.15°WSheep Pen Sandstone — 37.01°N, 102.96°WSheep Pen Sandstone — 36.90°N, 102.98°WSheep Pen Sandstone — 38.00°N, 102.97°WValtos Sandstone — 57.58°N, 6.14°WValtos Sandstone — 57.60°N, 6.16°WRock Point — 38.44°N, 109.93°WRock Point — 38.19°N, 110.44°WRock Point — 37.77°N, 110.48°WRock Point — 38.60°N, 109.60°WPopo Agie — 40.45°N, 109.30°WPopo Agie — 40.33°N, 109.24°WTimezgadiouine — 31.05°N, 8.98°WBull Run — 38.44°N, 77.92°WBull Run — 38.82°N, 77.53°WMidland — 39.00°N, 77.62°W

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The named rock units Grallator has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 78 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Grallator and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Grallator and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

406 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 311 sites for Grallator, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

181 references

Each of the 432 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 169 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Grallator

Credit
Safranes at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Bathypterois grallator · UF:Fish:162134

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGrallatoridae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hitchcock 1858