Pteraichnus

Pteraichnus is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to pterosaurs. As of 2025, eight valid ichnospecies have been described from various units.

Pteraichnus

Wang X, Bandeira KL, Qiu R, Jiang S, Cheng X, Ma Y, Kellner AW · CC BY-SA 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
PteraichnidaePBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At least 102 million years on record.

The record covers at least 174.7 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 61 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 61 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 61 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 23 of 61 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 28 of 61 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 7 of 61 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 61 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences199–195 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences195–190 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences190–185 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences185–181 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences181–176 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences176–171 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences167–162 Mya — about 2 occurrences162–157 Mya — about 5 occurrences157–152 Mya — about 7 occurrences152–148 Mya — about 8 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 4 occurrences143–138 Mya — about 8 occurrences138–134 Mya — about 4 occurrences134–129 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences129–124 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 4 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 3 occurrences115–110 Mya — about 4 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 2 occurrences106–101 Mya — about 2 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 1 occurrence87–82 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences82–77 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 1 occurrence68–63 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences174.7 Mya72.2 Mya204 Mya63 Mya

61 occurrences of Pteraichnus 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

61 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

27 formations

Huérteles — 41.97°N, 2.20°WHuérteles — 42.06°N, 2.45°WHuérteles — 42.07°N, 2.35°WHuérteles — 41.93°N, 2.18°WMorrison — 42.53°N, 106.76°WMorrison — 37.46°N, 110.51°WMorrison — 36.92°N, 109.08°WMorrison — 36.90°N, 102.98°WMorrison — 37.01°N, 102.99°WMorrison — 39.07°N, 108.73°WSummerville — 38.85°N, 108.48°WSummerville — 39.05°N, 110.92°WLastres — 43.55°N, 5.41°WLastres — 43.54°N, 5.49°WLastres — 43.55°N, 5.43°WLastres — 43.53°N, 5.28°WHutubihe — 46.08°N, 85.58°ECazals — 44.50°N, 1.32°EHaman — 34.90°N, 128.08°EHaman — 34.90°N, 128.03°E6 — 36.05°N, 103.25°ESundance — 42.52°N, 106.75°WMuerto — 26.12°N, 101.12°WMuerto — 28.20°N, 102.14°WDunvegan — 56.00°N, 119.92°WDunvegan — 55.57°N, 121.38°WJiaguan — 29.36°N, 103.94°EJiaguan — 28.22°N, 105.64°ECandeleros — 39.29°S, 68.84°WHasandong — 34.94°N, 127.73°EKitadani — 36.12°N, 136.55°EWierzbica Oolite and Platy Limestones — 51.25°N, 21.08°ENorth Horn — 39.30°N, 111.15°WBlackhawk — 39.69°N, 110.92°WSummerville/Bluff Sandstone — 36.92°N, 109.08°WAzóia — 38.46°N, 9.12°WLourinhã — 39.24°N, 9.34°WJinhua — 29.31°N, 120.16°EQugezhuang — 36.38°N, 120.43°EAztec Sandstone — 35.43°N, 115.53°W

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The named rock units Pteraichnus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Pteraichnus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

77 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Pteraichnus, 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

39 references

Each of the 61 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. 27 further references are not listed. 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 Pteraichnus

Credit
Wang X, Bandeira KL, Qiu R, Jiang S, Cheng X, Ma Y, Kellner AW
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Pteraichnus saltwashensis · hyq:7

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 itPteraichnidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stokes 1957