In Depth Many people often think that Sinraptor will be another dromaeosaurid dinosaur, when in actual fact it was a medium sized theropod of a similar build to Allosaurus. This is not the first instance that a non dromaeosaurid dinosaur has been given the inclusion of ‘raptor’ in its name with others such as Fukuiraptor … Read more
In Depth Yangchuanosaurus is often likened to fulfilling the same ecological niche as Allosaurus, except in Asia instead of North America. Not only does Yangchuanosaurus have a similar morphology to Allosaurus it also had access to similar prey items such as stegosaurs and sauropods. Yangchuanosaurus had a characteristic growth on top of its nose as … Read more
In Depth Leshansaurus was a mid-sized theropod of the late Jurassic of China with jaws that were proportionately longer than most other theropods of the time that also widened slightly. These features might denote a prey specialisation for Leshansaurus, perhaps somehow helping it to deal with the large variety of relatively small stegosaurs of the … Read more
In Depth It took a long time for the fossils of Neovenator to be studied and named, although such an occurrence is not unknown in the fields of Palaeontology. First discovered in 1978 from the chalk cliffs of the south-western Isle of Wight, a subsequent later visit led to the other remains of Neovenator being … Read more
In Depth Megaraptor made headlines at the time of its discovery because of the large thirty centimetre long claw that at the time was thought to be the sickle shaped claw that belonged on the second toe of a dromaeosaurid dinosaur like Velociraptor, but much bigger. However the discovery of a complete forelimb revealed this … Read more
In Depth Chilantaisaurus has had a jumbled taxominc history since its initial discovery mainly due to the inclusion of fragmentary remains that were later found to represent other, although similar dinosaurs. One example is Chilantaisaurus maortuensis which has been found to represent a carcharodontosaurid theropod and has since been renamed Shaochilong. Another current species of … Read more
In Depth Fukuiraptor is a dinosaur that really does not deserve the ‘raptor’ part of its name. This is because when it was discovered, one of the large hand claws was interpreted as being a ‘killing claw’ on the second toe, similar to other dromaeosaurids that have the epithet raptor. Later analysis resulted in a … Read more
In Depth Discovered back in the early days of scientific palaeontology, Eudes-Deslongchamp named the species Poekilopleuron bucklandii in honour of William Buckland, the man who named the first ever known dinosaur Megalosaurus. Additionally Eudes-Deslongchamp thought that Poekilopleuron may actually be the same species of dinosaur as Megalosaurus, an idea shared by the palaeontologists Fredriech von … Read more
In Depth Like with many early theropods, especially European ones, Metriacanthosaurus was originally named as a species of Megalosaurus, a dinosaur that in the early years of palaeontology ended up being used as a wastebasket taxon for almost any theropod remains. The initial naming was made by the German palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, who named … Read more