Minisauripus

Minisauripus is an ichnogenus of theropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of East Asia. The trackmaker of Minisauripus would have been among the smallest known non-avian dinosaurs. This ichnogenus contains two named ichnospecies from China, M. chuanzhuensis and M. zhenshuonani, with several indeterminate ichnospecies known from China, South Korea and Japan.

Minisauripus

The original author of this work is Kim et al. (2019). · CC BY 4.0 · 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
OrnithischiaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia

Time the record covers

At least 8.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 100.5 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 6 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 6 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–138 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences106–104 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences121.4 Mya113.2 Mya144 Mya99.6 Mya

6 occurrences of Minisauripus 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

6 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

5 formations

Haman — 34.90°N, 128.03°EHaman — 34.90°N, 128.08°EJiaguan — 29.60°N, 103.44°ETianjialou — 35.21°N, 118.72°EJinju — 35.17°N, 128.13°EFeitianshan — 28.29°N, 102.77°E

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

Minisauripus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

28 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Minisauripus, 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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 Minisauripus

Credit
The original author of this work is Kim et al. (2019).
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Minisauripus 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 itOrnithischia through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zhen et al. 1994