In Depth At first glance the large teeth of Janjucetus could lead you to think that it is one of the toothed whales but in fact closer analysis of the skull has revealed it to actually be one of the baleen whales. Since the earliest ancestor of the baleen whales predates Janjucetus by many millions … Read more
In Depth Although many people are familiar with the dinosaur Oviraptor, what they don’t realise is that its modern day reconstruction of this oviraptorid is often based upon the more abundant remains of Citipati. Named after two beheaded monks who appear in Tibetan buddhist folklore, Citipati is also one of the larger members of its … Read more
In Depth Scutarx is a genus of aetosaur that lived in North America during the late Triassic. Further Reading - Osteology of the Late Triassic aetosaur Scutarx deltatylus (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia). - PeerJ - William G. Parker - 2016. - Revised phylogenetic analysis of the Aetosauria (Archosauria: Pseudosuchia); assessing the effects of incongruent morphological character sets. … Read more
In Depth Tirraturhinus is a genus of trematosaurian temnospondyl amphibian that lived in what is now Australia during the earliest stage of the Triassic. Further Reading - A short-snouted trematosauroid (Tetrapoda, Temnospondyli) from the Early Triassic of Australia: the oldest known trematosaurine. - Alcheringa 30:263-271. - C. M. Nield, R. Damiani & A. Warren - … Read more
In Depth Gunakadeit is a genus of thalattosaur that lived in waters around what is now North America during the late Triassic. Gunakadeit is a thalattosaur genus of contrasts. In one respect Gunakadeit appear to have been quite primitive in form when compared to other thalattosaurs. In another, Gunakadeit lived towards the end of the … Read more
In Depth Limaysaurus was a medium sized rebbachisaurid sauropod that lived in Argentina during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading – Rebbachisaurus tessonei sp. nov. A new sauropod from the Albian-Cenomanian of Argentina; new evidence on the origin of the Diplodocidae. – Gaia, 11: 13-33. – J. O. Calvo & L Salgado – 1995. – Lower … Read more
In Depth Centrosaurus acquired its named from the numerous bony projections that run along the edges of its frill. Aside from these a large nasal horn extends upwards from the top of the snout, and a pair of small horns project from the eyebrow. Two more hornlets hook down from the top of the frill, … Read more
In Depth The holotype individual of Microvenator was first discovered by the famed American palaeontologist Barnum Brown in 1933. Brown noted that the holotype individual had what he thought was a disproportionately large head, and so came up with the name Megadontosaurus. A reference to the large head, but also the teeth found near it. … Read more
In Depth Because nothing is known about Kimmerosaurus from below the neck vertebrae it is impossible to say exactly how the body of Kimmerosaurus looked. However another plesiosaur from the same formation called Colymbosaurus is known only from its post cranial skeleton. Together these two separate genera may in fact represent the same plesiosaur, but … Read more
In Depth When first described in 1988 by Zhang Yihun this sauropod dinosaur genus was named as Protognathus. However it was soon realised that the name Protognathus had already been used to name a genus of beetle, so the dinosaur was renamed buy George Olshevsky to become Protognathosaurus in order to make it distinct from … Read more