Family
Formal taxon Extinct

Cairanoolithidae

Sellés and Galobart 2016

Cairanoolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg which is found in Southwestern Europe. The eggs are large and spherical. Their outer surface is either smooth, or covered with a subdued pattern of ridges interspersed with pits and grooves. Multiple fossil egg clutches are known but the nest structure is unclear.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
17
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Cairanoolithidae
click to enlarge
Cairanoolithus, a fossil dinosaur egg. Took the photo at Fossil Show, Munich © Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Ornithischia Unranked clade
Cairanoolithidae Family
Fossil sites 17 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇫🇷 France
15
🇪🇸 Spain
2
Geological formations
Marnes Rouges Inférieures
4
Grès à Reptiles
1
Grès de Labarre
1
Grey Garumnian
1
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
15
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
2
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
A. G. Sellés and À. Galobart. 2016. Reassessing the endemic European Upper Cretaceous dinosaur egg Cairanoolithus. Historical Biology 28(5):583-596 DOI ↗
Bibliography (8)
A. G. Sellés and À. Galobart. 2016. Reassessing the endemic European Upper Cretaceous dinosaur egg Cairanoolithus. Historical Biology 28(5):583-596 DOI ↗
A. G. Sellés and B. Vila. 2015. Re-evaluation of the age of some dinosaur localities from the southern Pyrenees by means of megaloolithid oospecies. Journal of Iberian Geology 41(1):125-139 DOI ↗
A. G. Sellés, A. M. Bravo, and X. Delclòs, F. Colombo, X. Martí, J. Ortega-Blanco, C. Parellada, À. Galobart. 2013. Dinosaur eggs in the Upper Cretaceous of the Coll de Nargó area, Lleida Province, south-central Pyrenees, Spain: Oodiversity, biostratigraphy and their implications. Cretaceous Research 40(1):10-20 DOI ↗
V. Díez Díaz, G. Garcia, and F. Knoll, X. Pereda Suberbiola, X. Valentin. 2012. New cranial remains of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Fox-Amphoux-Métisson (Var, SE France). Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 123(4):626-637 DOI ↗
R. Cousin. 2002. Organisation des pontes de dinosauriens de la parafamille des Megaloolithidae Zhao, 1979 [Organization of dinosaur clutches of the parafamily Megaloolithidae Zhao, 1979]. Bulletin trimestriel de la Société géologique du Normandie et Amis du Muséum du Havre 89(1–4):1-177
M. Vianey-Liaud and N. López-Martínez. 1997. Late Cretaceous dinosaur eggshells from the Tremp basin, southern Pyrenees, Lleida, Spain. Journal of Paleontology 71(6):1157-1171 DOI ↗
M. Vianey-Liaud and J.-Y. Crochet. 1994. Dinosaur eggshells from the Late Cretaceous of Laeguedoc (southern France). Dinosaurs and Other Fossil Reptiles of Europe, Second Georges Cuvier Symposium. Revue de Paléobiologie Volume spécial 7:237-149
M. Vianey-Liaud, P. Mallan, and O. Buscail, C. Montgelard. 1994. Review of French dinosaur eggshells: morphology, structure, mineral, and organic composition. Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge