Noripterus complicidens

Noripterus is a genus of dsungaripterid pterodactyloid pterosaur from Lower Cretaceous of Asia. The type species, Noripterus complidicens, is from the Wuerho Pterosaur Fauna (WPF) of the Lianmuqin Formation and Shengjinkou Formation in the Junggar Basin of Xinjiang, China. Both formations have seen various age estimates, with data suggest at least some of the WPF dates to the middle Valanginian, but the upper and lower bounds of these pterosaur bearing deposits remains unclear. It was first named by Yang Zhongjian in 1973. The second species, Noripterus parvus, was recovered from the Tsagaantsav Formation of Mongolia.

Noripterus complicidens

Li, Yang; Wang, Xiaolin; Jiang, Shunxing · CC BY-SA 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
NoripterusPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 37 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 137.05 Mya and 100.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 6 of 6 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 6 occurrences138–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–134 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences133–131 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences128–126 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137.8 Mya99.8 Mya

6 occurrences of Noripterus complicidens 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

2 formations

Lianmuqin — 46.04°N, 85.79°ELianmuqin — 46.10°N, 85.67°ETsagaantsav — 48.75°N, 92.60°E

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

Noripterus complicidens and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Noripterus complicidens and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

14 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Noripterus complicidens, 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

2 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 Noripterus complicidens

Credit
Li, Yang; Wang, Xiaolin; Jiang, Shunxing
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Noripterus complicidens was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itNoripterus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Young 1973