In Depth Bear dogs can often be divided into North American and Eurasian genera, but Cynelos is one of the few genera that what active across both of these areas as well as Africa, a range proven by the discovery of multiple remains on all of these continents. Because Cynelos was a large Miocene era … Read more
In Depth Although not as large as the North American Utahraptor, Austroraptor is still the largest dromaeosaurid currently known from South America. However to mark Austroraptor down for just this reason would be doing the genus a grave injustice as Austroraptor displays many features that make it unique among the other members of its group. … Read more
In Depth Liaoningvenator was a small troodontid dinosaur that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. In fact with a reconstructed length of about sixty-nine centimetres for the holotype individual, Liaoningvenator is amongst the smallest troodontid dinosaurs known. Liaoningvenator also had very long legs, and combined with the light build and size of this dinosaur, … Read more
In Depth Pholidogaster gets its name from scales that ran along its belly and has an overall morphology that it similar to Greererpeton. The legs are underdeveloped and unsuitable for a terrestrial lifestyle, and the tail is long and flattened for greater efficiency in the water. Pholidogaster also possessed fangs for seizing prey. Further Reading … Read more
In Depth The story of Ornithodesmus can be a confusing one as for a long time the genus was credited with being a pterosaur, whereas we now know this was a mistake. It all began in 1887 when Harry Govier Seeley described a set of six sacral vertebrae that he thought belonged to a bird. … Read more
In Depth Arenysaurus was a late Cretaceous hadrosaurid dinosaur, and of extra significance since it was a lambeosaurine. This means that Arenysaurus had a hollow crest on its head, and lived in a time when lambeosaurine hadrosaurs had been largely replaced by saurolophine hadrosaurs in other parts of the world like in North America. Further … Read more
In Depth While palaeontologists are certain that Dracopelta was an ankylosaur, no one knows for certain if the genus was a nodosaurid or an actual ankylosaurid (an actual member of the Ankylosauridae). Nodosaurid is perhaps the most likely answer given that we know that out of these two groups nodosaurids appeared first. Ankylosaurids by contrast … Read more
In Depth Agudotherium is a genus of cynodont therapsid that lived in South America during the late Triassic. Further Reading - A New Prozostrodontian Cynodont (Eucynodontia, Probainognathia) from the Upper Triassic of Southern Brazil. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (3): e1782415. - Micheli Stefanello, Leonardo Kerber, Agustin G. Martinelli, & S�rgio Dias-Da-Silva - 2020.
In Depth Jinzhousaurus is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. With an estimated length of about seven meters, Jinzhousaurus was a medium to large sized hadrosauroid dinosaur, and is noted for having a skull that grew out to a substantial width at the back, while a small crest … Read more
In Depth Sacabambaspis was an early jawless fish, but one that seems to have had a lateral line. A lateral line is a series of sensory organs that allow the fish to detect the movement of other organisms around them, and is seen in modern fish. Sacabambaspis was probably similar to other jawless fish such … Read more