In Depth Arkharavia is currently regarded to be a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur because the lack of additional remains means that it will be very difficult to infer further fossils to the genus. In addition to this, vertebrae added to Arkharavia may actually have come from a hadrosaurid dinosaur, which means that only the … Read more
In Depth Yi is certainly one of the more bizarre dinosaurs that were named in 2015. In fact this is reflected in the full type species name of Yi qi which translates to English as ‘strange wing’. This is a reference to how the hands of Yi not only had elongated fingers, but how there … Read more
In Depth Parapytanga is a genus of temnospondul amphibian that lived in South America during the late Permian. Although fossil remains are partial and fragmentary, Parapytanga may have grown to a meter or more in length, suggesting that Parapytanga would have been a predator of smaller creatures. Further Reading - On a New Stereospondylomorph Temnospondyl … Read more
In Depth Further Reading – Preliminary report on the vertebrate type locality of Cita Canyon and the description of an ancestral coyote. – American Journal Science (5)35:383-390. – C. S. Johnston – 1938.
In Depth Sinosauropteryx was the first confirmed feathered but non-avian dinosaur discovered. What this means is that while Sinosauropteryx had protofeathers, it was still more like theropod dinosaurs than birds. Sinosauropteryx is often described as being very small at sixty-eight centimetres long however this measurement was just for the holotype specimen which was a juvenile. … Read more
In Depth Although Alexeyisaurus was described from partial remains, it seems that further material was actually present at the site of its discovery. Still, the material recovered is enough to suggest that Alexeyisaurus is one of the earliest known elasmosaurid plesiosaurs, the group of plesiosaurs that had proportionately much longer necks than the more ‘standard’ … Read more
In Depth Bashuchelys is a genus of turtle that lived in China during the mid Jurassic. Fossil remains once named as Chengyuchelys zigongensis have now been used to establish a second species of Bashuchelys, B. zigongensis. Further Reading - Middle Jurassic turtles from the Sichuan Basin, China: a review - Haiyan Tong, Igor Danilov, Yong … Read more
In Depth Moschorhinus is an interesting genus of therocephalian therapsid as the genus developed cranial features that were very similar to gorgonopsid therapsids, even though it was not a direct relative of them. Like the gorgonopsids, Moschorhinus was a key predator of the time, hunting medium to large herbivorous animals. The main killing weapons used … Read more
In Depth Zuniceratops is very important to the fossil record as it is the first ceratopsian known to have brow horns and also the oldest species recovered from North America. This lends weight to the theory that the horned ceratopsians evolved in North America as opposed to Asia. The frill on Zuniceratops was fenestrated, meaning … Read more
In Depth As a detritivore Bothriolepis lay at the bottom of aquatic environments and sifted through the mud and silt for organic matter. Evidence for this comes from fact that not only is its gut filled with sediment, but it is spiral shaped. A spiral shaped gut would have given organic material a longer course … Read more