Oryctodromeus

Oryctodromeus is an extinct genus of small orodromine thescelosaurid dinosaur. Fossils are known from the mid-Cretaceous Blackleaf Formation of southwestern Montana and the Wayan Formation of southeastern Idaho, USA, both from around the Albian–Cenomanian ages, roughly 105-96 million years ago. A member of the small, presumably fast-running herbivorous family Thescelosauridae, Oryctodromeus is the first non-avian dinosaur published that shows evidence of burrowing behavior.

Oryctodromeus

Tim Evanson · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
OrodrominaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
2.1 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 106.3 Mya and 93.9 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 5 of 9 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 4 of 9 occurrencesLate Cretaceous106–106 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–100 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–98 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences94–94 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences106.8 Mya93.4 Mya

9 occurrences of Oryctodromeus 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

9 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

Wayan — 43.14°N, 111.27°WWayan — 42.97°N, 111.27°WWayan — 43.16°N, 111.29°WBlackleaf — 44.54°N, 112.60°W

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

Oryctodromeus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Oryctodromeus, 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 9 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 content2

Picture of Oryctodromeus

Credit
Tim Evanson
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itOrodrominae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Varricchio et al. 2007