PBDB Taxon

Basic info	Taxonomic history	Classification	Included Taxa
Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Dendroolithus

Osteichthyes - Phaceloolithidae

Taxonomy

Dendroolithus was named by Zhao and Li (1988). It is considered to be a form taxon. Its type is Dendroolithus wangdianensis. It is the type genus of Dendroolithidae.

It was assigned to Phaceloolithidae by Fang et al. (2003), Fang et al. (2005); and to Dendroolithidae by Zhao and Li (1988), Mikhailov (1994), Mikhailov et al. (1994), Mikhailov (1997), Zhao and Zhao (1998), Mikhailov (2000), Liang et al. (2009), Tanaka et al. (2023), Chen et al. (2025).

Species

D. dendriticus, D. fengguangcunensis, D. furcatus, D. microporosus, D. sanlimiaoensis, D. wangdianensis (type species), D. xichuanensis, D. zhaoyingensis

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1988	Dendroolithus Zhao and Li p. 114
1994	Dendroolithus Mikhailov p. 147
1994	Dendroolithus Mikhailov et al. p. 92
1997	Dendroolithus Mikhailov p. 55
1998	Dendroolithus Zhao and Zhao pp. 286, 293
2000	Dendroolithus Mikhailov p. 565
2003	Dendroolithus Fang et al. p. 516
2005	Dendroolithus Fang et al. p. 684
2009	Dendroolithus Liang et al. p. 1591
2023	Dendroolithus Tanaka et al. p. 202
2025	Dendroolithus Chen et al.

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
class	Osteichthyes
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota

Rank	Name	Author
—	Sauropsida
class	Reptilia
subclass	Eureptilia	()
—	Romeriida
—	Diapsida	()
—	Archosauromorpha	(Huene 1946)
—	Crocopoda
—	Archosauriformes	Gauthier 1986
—	Eucrocopoda
—	Archosauria	()
informal	Avemetatarsalia
—	Ornithodira
—	Dinosauromorpha
—	Dinosauriformes
—	Dinosauria	()
family	Phaceloolithidae
genus	Dendroolithus

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Dendroolithus Zhao and Li 1988

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†Dendroolithus dendriticus Fang et al. 1998

†Dendroolithus fengguangcunensis Fang et al. 2005

†Dendroolithus furcatus Fang 1998

†Dendroolithus microporosus Mikhailov 1994

†Dendroolithus sanlimiaoensis Fang 1998

†Dendroolithus wangdianensis Zhao and Li 1988

†Dendroolithus xichuanensis Zhao and Zhao 1998

†Dendroolithus zhaoyingensis Fang 1998

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
K. E. Mikhailov 1994	Large subspherical and ellipsoidal eggs (EL = 1.0-1.2) with rough surface (no clearly manifested ornamentation). Shell microstructure typical of family (dendrospherulitic morphotype, prolatocanaliculate type of pore system; fig. 1b, c).
K. E. Mikhailov 1997	Subspherical or slightly ellipsoidal eggs with rough (without regular ornamentation) or rather smooth external surface, and eggshell structure typical for dendroolithids. General range of eggshell thickness is 1.7-3.3 mm; maximal values up to 35-45 mm (in different eggs).
H. Zhao and Z. Zhao 1998	Eggs oval. Column branching symmetrically. Columns interlocking near the outer surface of the eggshell, forming a continuous layer. The layer taking up 1/4 eggshell thickness or 1/3 columnar height.

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

phosphaticsubp

Environment:

terrestrialsubc

Locomotion:

actively mobilec

Created:

2017-04-17 15:16:03

Modified:

2017-04-17 15:16:03

Source: subc = subclass, c = class, subp = subphylum

References: Kiessling 2004, Carroll 1988, Hendy et al. 2009

Age range: base of the Early/Lower Cretaceous to the top of the Maastrichtian or 143.10000 to 66.00000 Ma

Collections (22 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Early/Lower Cretaceous	143.1 - 100.5	China (Henan)	D. dendriticus (275533)
Late/Upper Cenomanian - Turonian	100.5 - 89.8	China (Zhejiang)	D. dendriticus (205656)
Cenomanian - Coniacian	100.5 - 85.7	China (Henan)	D. dendriticus (275531)
Cenomanian - Santonian	100.5 - 83.6	Mongolia (Dornogov)	Dendroolithidae indet. (108342)
Late/Upper Cretaceous	100.5 - 66.0	China (Hubei)	D. wangdianensis (28226)
Late/Upper Coniacian	89.8 - 85.7	China (Henan)	D. xichuanensis (275540)
Coniacian - Santonian	89.8 - 83.6	China (Henan)	D. dendriticus (275516 275518 275519 275521 275528) D. furcatus, D. sanlimiaoensis (275515) D. sanlimiaoensis (275522) D. zhaoyingensis (275514)
Middle Santonian	85.7 - 83.6	China (Henan)	D. sanlimiaoensis (97943)
Middle Campanian - Late/Upper Campanian	83.6 - 72.2	Mongolia (Omnogov)	D. sp. (13777 65334 118256) Dinosauria indet. (13776)
Campanian - Maastrichtian	83.6 - 66.0	China (Guangdong)	D. fengguangcunensis (134619 275420)
Maastrichtian	72.2 - 66.0	Mongolia (Omnogov)	D. microporosus (179625)