Macroelongatoolithus

Macroelongatoolithus is an oogenus of large theropod dinosaur eggs, representing the eggs of giant caenagnathid oviraptorosaurs. They are known from Asia and from North America. Historically, several oospecies have been assigned to Macroelongatoolithus, however they are all now considered to be a single oospecies: M. carlylensis.

Macroelongatoolithus

Uncredited · 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
ElongatoolithidaePBDB
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 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 29 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 4 of 29 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 25 of 29 occurrencesLate Cretaceous145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 2 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 7 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 5 occurrences93–90 Mya — about 1 occurrence90–88 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100.5 Mya83.6 Mya145 Mya71 Mya

29 occurrences of Macroelongatoolithus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

29 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

13 formations

Cedar Mountain — 39.18°N, 110.94°WCedar Mountain — 38.64°N, 111.37°WCedar Mountain — 38.94°N, 111.08°WCedar Mountain — 38.68°N, 111.25°WCedar Mountain — 38.64°N, 111.27°WCedar Mountain — 38.85°N, 111.15°WCedar Mountain — 39.05°N, 111.00°WGaogou — 33.34°N, 111.42°EGaogou — 33.26°N, 111.73°EWayan — 43.05°N, 111.15°WChichengshan — 29.17°N, 121.04°ELiangtoutang — 29.19°N, 121.10°EWillow Tank — 36.42°N, 114.55°WNaturita — 39.18°N, 110.94°WGoseong — 34.94°N, 128.33°ENanchao — 34.52°N, 110.95°EIlseongsan — 34.83°N, 126.37°EBaynshire — 44.27°N, 109.91°EZhaoying — 33.23°N, 111.69°EZoumagang — 33.28°N, 111.68°E

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The named rock units Macroelongatoolithus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Macroelongatoolithus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Macroelongatoolithus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

86 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 28 sites for Macroelongatoolithus, and this reads all 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

16 references

Each of the 29 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. 4 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 content1

Picture of Macroelongatoolithus

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Macroelongatoolithus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itElongatoolithidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Li et al. 1995