Microraptor

Microraptor is a genus of small, four-winged dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation, 125 to 120 million years ago. Three species have been named, though further study has suggested that all of them represent variation in a single species, which is properly called M. zhaoianus. Cryptovolans, initially described as another four-winged dinosaur, is usually considered to be a synonym of Microraptor.

Microraptor

David W. E. Hone, Helmut Tischlinger, Xing Xu, Fucheng Zhang · CC BY 2.5 · 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
MicroraptorinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Length
0.8 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 8.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 121.4 Mya and 113.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 10 of 10 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous122–121 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–119 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences117–117 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–116 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–114 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences113–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.9 Mya112.7 Mya

10 occurrences of Microraptor on record, most of them in the Early 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

10 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

1 formation

Jiufotang — 41.50°N, 121.22°EJiufotang — 41.42°N, 120.18°EJiufotang — 41.49°N, 120.23°EJiufotang — 43.64°N, 120.43°EJiufotang — 41.57°N, 120.16°EJiufotang — 40.65°N, 119.69°EJiufotang — 40.81°N, 119.80°E

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

Microraptor and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Microraptor and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

57 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Microraptor, 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

10 references

Each of the 10 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. 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 content2

Picture of Microraptor

Credit
David W. E. Hone, Helmut Tischlinger, Xing Xu, Fucheng Zhang
Licence
CC BY 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itMicroraptorinae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Xu et al. 2000