Where are all the European Cretaceous dinosaurs?

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Okay, paleontology people! I am writing a novel, set in Europe, about a forest spirit that can turn into a microraptor. Yes, crows aren’t majestic enough for me. It’s really got to be a microraptor from Europe, so it can be totemic to the geographical area.

Viking vs dinosaurs, basically. I know this sounds really dumb, and that is because it is. I’m no J. K. Rowling.

PROBLEM: What is now Europe seems to have a limited record of Cretaceous dinosaurs. All microraptorids seem to be found only in what is today China and Mongolia. I haven’t found any that lived in West Laurasia.
If none have been found, would it be plausible to assume some small populations migrated and became indigenous to Europe? Like how modern fauna is considerably homogenously-distributed all over Eurasia today.

Oh and archaeopterixes won’t do, I want a real fantastical-looking “bird”, with four wings and teeth and all.

My only other option is to change the historical setting of the story to China, which will take months of research.

(also I’m not actually an otherkin tapir, I’m signing in with facebook and that is my joke name. No offence to actual otherkin tapirs meant.)

Thank you! 🙂

3

Answers


  1. KTDykes
    "Where are all the European Cretaceous dinosaurs?" Southern England offers dinos from both the start of the Cretaceous and something like 130 million years ago. Purbeckian (earliest Cretaceous) are mostly from the Purbecks of Dorset. Wealden (about 130 million years ago) have been collected from Dorset, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and doubtlessly elsewhere. Spain has some of that sort of age too. For the end of the Cretaceous try the unusually mini-dinos of Transylvania in Romania. "Okay, paleontology people! I am writing a novel, set in Europe, about a forest spirit that can turn into a microraptor." Um, Microraptor is so far restricted to China. Still, the age roughly coincides with the Wealden. "It's really got to be a microraptor from Europe, so it can be totemic to the geographical area." Then you'll have to come up with one yourself. The only known supply of Microraptor fossils is in northeast China in the province of Liaoning, and that's not exactly totemic for Europe. "What is now Europe seems to have a limited record of Cretaceous dinosaurs." Much of it was covered by sea during most of the Cretaceous. It was a very wet place with some islands. This explains the limited record for land critters. "I haven't found any that lived in West Laurasia." Neither has anybody else. This suggests strongly that they didn't. "If none have been found, would it be plausible to assume some small populations migrated and became indigenous to Europe?" It doesn't sound overly plausible to me. There was a sea for much of the Cretaceous between Asia and the islands of Europe. However, at some point during the ealier Cretaceous there must have been some kind of land connection available. Turning to Lower Cretaceous mammals, as I'm sure you'll be aware, the genus* Gobiconodon was first described from the Gobi in Mongolia. Subsequently, it's been identified elsewhere in parts of Asia, but also in North America and Spain. It roughly correlates in time to the English Wealden deposits. If Gobiconodon could manage that, then I suppose a gliding dromaeosaur could have too. (The "genus" Gobiconodon shouldn't be too strictly. It's probably, as presently used, a hodge-podge for stuff from several similar (but distinct) genera, but nobody's yet found any means for tidying it up. "Oh and archaeopterixes won't do..:" And Archie happens to be from the Upper Jurassic, not the Cretaceous. "I want a real fantastical-looking "bird", with four wings and teeth and all." As Microraptor has been diagnosed as a dromaeosaur, and assuming that's correct, that opens up the possibility for calling on other dromaeosaurs. Some kind of dromaeo teeth have been recovered from the Wealden-aged Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight. You might enjoy checking up on what's known of the paleoecology of the Isle of Wight Wessex Formation. It's a similar age, although somewhat older, than Microraptor. It also affords a nice variety of dinos and other critters. (And that includes the aforementioned Gobiconodon.) Update "The microraptors were birds, not dinosaurs." Not according to the large majority of people who have studied them. "Birds have light weight, hollow bones, and therefore they are rarely preserved as fossils." Light weight, hollow bones are known from ever so many coelurosaur dinosaurs (which, for the large majority of researchers, happen to include birds). They're also, of course, known from pterosaurs.
  2. + -

    There are thousand upon thusand of dinosaur species that have not been discovered, why not use one of those?

    I.e. make one up.

    Petter Wäss
    Reply
  3. + -

    The microraptors were birds, not dinosaurs. Birds have light weight, hollow bones, and therefore they are rarely preserved as fossils. The site in Northeastern China that has preserved so many birds in such exquisite detail, including Microraptor, is extremely rare, even rarer than sites like Sohnhofen in Germany. Therefore, just because Cretaceous bird fossils are rare in Europe does not mean that they did not exist. For example, Eoalulavis is an early Cretaceous bird from Spain and Bauxitornis is known from Late Cretaceous Hungary. There were also many Cretaceous bird fossils from North and South America, Central Asia and of course, China and Mongolia, informing us that birds have spread far and wide around the World by the late Cretaceous.

    Cal King
    Reply
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