Protostega gigas

Protostega gigas

Creator: Dmitry Bogdanov · CC BY 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
ProtostegaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Cryptodira
Life habit
aquaticPBDB, for Cryptodira
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Chelonioidea

Time the record covers

At most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 89.8 Mya and 72.2 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 11 of 11 occurrencesLate Cretaceous90–90 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–88 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences90.3 Mya71.7 Mya

11 occurrences of Protostega gigas 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

11 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

Mooreville Chalk — 32.60°N, 87.68°WMooreville Chalk — 32.84°N, 87.89°WMooreville Chalk — 32.76°N, 88.02°WMooreville Chalk — 32.87°N, 88.04°WMooreville Chalk — 32.96°N, 88.13°WNiobrara — 38.77°N, 100.92°WRybushka — 51.24°N, 44.99°ERybushka — 52.45°N, 44.92°E

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The named rock units Protostega gigas has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protostega gigas and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Protostega gigas and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

56 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Protostega gigas, 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 11 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 Protostega gigas

Credit
Creator: Dmitry Bogdanov
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Protostega gigas 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.

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

Keep going

What may have been alongside itProtostega through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1871