Ornithopsis

Ornithopsis is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England and possibly Germany. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is O. hulkei, which is only known from fragmentary remains.

Ornithopsis

Mike Taylor · 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
TitanosauriformesPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 145.06 Mya to 119.57 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 6 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 5 of 6 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous146–145 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences145–144 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences131–131 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences131–130 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences130–129 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences129–128 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences128–127 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences127–126 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences123–123 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences143.1 Mya125.77 Mya145.6 Mya119.1 Mya

6 occurrences of Ornithopsis 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

Wessex — 50.65°N, 1.46°WWessex — 50.64°N, 1.43°WPortland Stone — 50.57°N, 2.45°W

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The named rock units Ornithopsis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ornithopsis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

36 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Ornithopsis, 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

6 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 Ornithopsis

Credit
Mike Taylor
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ornithopsis 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 itTitanosauriformes through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Seeley 1870