Dinosaur Fossil Map

Data sources & licences

This site is built entirely on open data and open-source software. Thank you to everyone who collected, shared and maintains it. Here is exactly what we use and the licence each part comes with.

Data version
Paleobiology Database snapshot of 2026-10-12: 17,937 non-avian dinosaur records on the map
Last refreshed
2026-10-12

Paleobiology Database

Credit: Data from the Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org), CC BY 4.0

Used for: Every dinosaur fossil occurrence on the map: the taxon, age, rock formation, place and collection record.

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Source: https://paleobiodb.org/

PhyloPic

Credit: Silhouettes from PhyloPic (phylopic.org), each credited on the page where it appears; CC0 and CC BY images only

Used for: Dinosaur silhouettes on species pages. Only images released under CC0 or CC BY are used.

Licence: CC0 1.0 and CC BY (per image)

Source: https://www.phylopic.org/

Wikidata

Credit: Wikidata, CC0

Used for: Common names, short descriptions and Wikipedia links on species pages.

Licence: CC0 1.0

Source: https://www.wikidata.org/

Natural Earth

Credit: Made with Natural Earth, public domain

Used for: Country and US state boundaries, used to count finds in each region.

Licence: Public domain

Source: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/

OS Boundary-Line

Credit: Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Ordnance Survey Boundary-Line, Open Government Licence v3.0

Used for: UK county boundaries, used to count finds in each county.

Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0

Source: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line

OpenStreetMap

Credit: © OpenStreetMap contributors, basemap by Protomaps, ODbL

Used for: The basemap.

Licence: ODbL

Source: https://protomaps.com/

GeoNames

Credit: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0

Used for: Town names for search (cities15000).

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Source: https://www.geonames.org/

Software

The map is drawn with MapLibre GL JS and PMTiles, and the site is built with Astro. These are open-source projects under their own licences.

Using our images and embeds

Images you download from the map and the embed code both carry the credits above. Please leave them in place.

The fossil records in numbers

The map is built from a snapshot of the Paleobiology Database taken on 2026-10-12. The database returned 22,667 records for dinosaurs. We removed 2,326 footprint records, 994 egg records, 462 records of Mesozoic birds and 948 records dated after the Cretaceous, which leaves 17,937 non-avian dinosaur finds with map coordinates. 986 are marked as approximate because the database gives only a rough position for them. Together they cover 1,298 genera and 93 countries.

Birds are left out. Birds are technically living dinosaurs, but this map covers the non-avian dinosaurs, the ones that died out about 66 million years ago.

Silhouette credits

Silhouettes come from PhyloPic and are used only where the artist released them under CC0 or a CC BY licence. Each one is credited here and on its species page.

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.