Nyctosaurus

Nyctosaurus is a genus of nyctosaurid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of what is now the Niobrara Formation of the mid-western United States, which, during the time Nyctosaurus was alive, was covered in an extensive shallow sea. Some remains belonging to a possible Nyctosaurus species called "N." lamegoi have been found in Brazil, though it likely belongs to a different genus Simurghia. The genus Nyctosaurus has had numerous species referred to it, though how many of these may actually be valid requires further study. At least one species possessed an extraordinarily large antler-like cranial crest.

Nyctosaurus

User:Piotrus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
PterodactyloideaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 110.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 10 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 10 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 2 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 4 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya111 Mya65.1 Mya

10 occurrences of Nyctosaurus 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

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

3 formations

Niobrara — 38.77°N, 100.92°WNiobrara — 39.07°N, 99.82°WNiobrara — 39.33°N, 99.60°WNiobrara — 38.92°N, 100.33°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.77°WNiobrara — 38.88°N, 100.24°WTlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°WGramame — 7.25°S, 34.80°W

Loading coastlines…

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

Nyctosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

71 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Nyctosaurus, 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

9 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 content3

Picture of Nyctosaurus

Credit
User:Piotrus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nyctosaurus bonneri · FHSM:vp:2148

3D model

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

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 itPterodactyloidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Marsh 1876)