Thescelosaurus

Thescelosaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in western North America. It was named and described in 1913 by the paleontologist Charles W. Gilmore; the type species is T. neglectus. Two other species, T. garbanii and T. assiniboiensis, were named in 1976 and 2011, respectively. Additional species have been suggested but are currently not accepted. Thescelosaurus is the eponymous member of its family, the Thescelosauridae. Thescelosaurids are either considered to be basal ("primitive") ornithopods, or are placed outside of this group within the broader group Neornithischia.

Thescelosaurus

Ben Jacobson ( Kranar Drogin ) · CC BY 2.5 · 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
ThescelosaurinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Ornithischia
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithischia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithischia
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithischia
Length
3.5 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 55 of 55 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 55 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 7 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 7 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 7 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 7 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 7 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 7 occurrences66–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences89.8 Mya72.2 Mya94.5 Mya65.4 Mya

55 occurrences of Thescelosaurus 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

55 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

9 formations

Hell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 45.98°N, 103.75°WHell Creek — 46.41°N, 103.94°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 106.31°WHell Creek — 47.94°N, 106.19°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.81°N, 106.28°WHell Creek — 47.68°N, 105.98°WHell Creek — 45.06°N, 103.45°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.89°N, 104.55°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WHell Creek — 45.64°N, 103.49°WHell Creek — 46.33°N, 104.01°WHell Creek — 45.60°N, 103.76°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 46.00°N, 103.19°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.49°WLance — 43.27°N, 104.57°WLance — 43.15°N, 104.57°WLance — 45.00°N, 103.18°WLance — 45.48°N, 104.19°WLance — 47.79°N, 104.56°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.46°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.47°WFrenchman — 49.04°N, 106.60°WFrenchman — 49.36°N, 108.46°WScollard — 52.33°N, 113.12°WScollard — 50.87°N, 112.99°WLaramie — 40.39°N, 104.49°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.26°WStraight Cliffs — 37.80°N, 111.50°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Thescelosaurus 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.

Thescelosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Thescelosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

365 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 54 sites for Thescelosaurus, 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

30 references

Each of the 55 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. 18 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 Thescelosaurus

Credit
Ben Jacobson ( Kranar Drogin )
Licence
CC BY 2.5
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 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 itThescelosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gilmore 1913