Platypterygius americanus

Platypterygius americanus

Canadian Museum of Nature · CC BY 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
PlatypterygiusPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Life habit
nektonicPBDB, for Ichthyopterygia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ichthyosauria
Environment
marinePBDB, for Ichthyosauria

Time the record covers

At most 20 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 113.2 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 3 of 5 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 5 occurrencesLate Cretaceous114–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113.7 Mya93.4 Mya

5 occurrences of Platypterygius americanus 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

5 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

4 formations

Mowry Shale — 44.02°N, 104.47°WMowry Shale — 44.23°N, 104.69°WBelle Fourche — 44.10°N, 104.60°WAshville — 51.00°N, 106.00°WHudspeth — 44.60°N, 120.17°W

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

Platypterygius americanus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Platypterygius americanus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

33 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Platypterygius americanus, 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

5 references

Each of the 5 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 Platypterygius americanus

Source
GBIF
Credit
Canadian Museum of Nature
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPlatypterygius through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Nace 1939)