Microraptor zhaoianus

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
- MicroraptorPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
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.
5 occurrences of Microraptor zhaoianus 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
5 occurrences- Early Cretaceous100%
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 Formation · Jehol Group5
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The named rock units Microraptor zhaoianus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Microraptor zhaoianus and its relatives
Early CretaceousWhere Microraptor zhaoianus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
24 taxa- Pterosauria2 sites
- Aberratiodontus wui1 site
- Archaeorhynchus spathula1 site
- Archaeovolans repatriatus1 site
- Confuciusornis1 site
- Enantiornithes1 site
- Indrasaurus wangi1 site
- Jeholornis palmapenis1 site
- Jianchangornis microdonta1 site
- Lactodens sheni1 site
- Linlongopterus jennyae1 site
- Longipteryx1 site
- Lycoptera1 site
- Mammalia1 site
- Musivavis amabilis1 site
- Omnivoropteryx sinousaorum1 site
- Ornithurae1 site
- Osteichthyes1 site
- Philydrosaurus proseilus1 site
- Sapeornis chaoyangensis1 site
- Schizooura lii1 site
- Yabeinosaurus robustus1 site
- Yixianornis grabaui1 site
- Zhongjianornis yangi1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Microraptor zhaoianus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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
5 references- Microraptor with ingested lizard suggests non-specialized digestive function1
- Flying dromaeosaurs1
- New specimens of Microraptor zhaoianus (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae) from northeastern China1
- The smallest known non-avian theropod dinosaur1
- Feathers for T. rex? New birdlike fossils are missing links in dinosaur evolution1
Each of the 5 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 content1

Picture of Microraptor zhaoianus
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Ghedoghedo
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Microraptor zhaoianus 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itMicroraptor through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Xu et al. 2000