Thapunngaka shawi

Thapunngaka is a genus of ornithocheiriform pterosaur recovered from the Early Cretaceous marine Toolebuc Formation in Queensland, Australia. Thapunngaka represents the largest pterosaur known from the Australian continent. The genus currently contains a single species, Thapunngaka shawi.

Thapunngaka shawi

Sauriazoicillus · 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
ThapunngakaPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 113.2 Mya and 100.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 2 occurrences113–113 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences112–112 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–111 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–110 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences109–109 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences108–108 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences107–107 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences106–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113.7 Mya100 Mya

2 occurrences of Thapunngaka shawi 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

2 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

1 formation

Toolebuc — 20.43°S, 142.93°EToolebuc — 20.65°S, 143.10°E

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

Thapunngaka shawi and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Thapunngaka shawi and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

No other named taxon is catalogued from any of those sites.

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Thapunngaka shawi, and this reads all of them.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Thapunngaka shawi

Credit
Sauriazoicillus
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thapunngaka shawi 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 itThapunngaka through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Richards et al. 2021