In Depth Aepyornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the late Cretaceous. Analysis of the foot of Aepyornithomimus shows an intermediate development between primitive and advanced ornithomimosaurs. Further Reading - First Ornithomimid (Theropoda, Ornithomimosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation of T�gr�giin Shiree, Mongolia. - Scientific Reports. 7: Article number … Read more
In Depth Originally named as a species of Doswellia, Rugarhynchos is a genus of proterochampsian archosauromorph that lived in North America during the late Triassic. Rugarhynchos is noted for the shortness of its snout when compared to other doswelliids. Further reading - A new species of the enigmatic archosauromorph Doswellia from the Upper Triassic Bluewater … Read more
In Depth Though only named from a leg and foot, Velocisaurus seems to have been a particularly fast running dinosaur given that the leg shows clear adaptations for running, hence the name which means ‘swift lizard’. When the dinosaur Velocisaurus was first described by Jos� Bonaparte in 1991 he speculated that Velocisaurus might have been … Read more
In Depth Liaoningotitan is a genus of titanisauriform sauropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new Titanosauriformes dinosaur from Jehol Biota of western Liaoning, China. - Global Geology. 37 (2): 327–333. - C.-F. Zhou, W.–H. Wu, T. Sekiya & Z.-M. Dong - 2018.
In Depth Sauroscaptor is a genus of burrowing dicynodont that lived in India during the late Permian. Further Reading - A new Taxon of Cistecephalid Dicynodont from the Upper Permian Kundaram Formation of India. - Papers in Palaeontology 1-16. - C. F. Kammerer, S. Bandyopadhyay & S. Ray - 2016.
In Depth Saturnalia is today considered to be a sauropodomorph, albeit a very primitive one at that. The fossil record concerning the evolution of dinosaurs is still very incomplete and quite possibly will never be known as a whole, but as soon as dinosaurs appeared in the Triassic period it seems that it was only … Read more
In Depth While Titanichthys appears to have been as large as the fearsome Dunkleosteus, it does not seem to have had the same apex predator lifestyle. Whereas Dunkleosteus had jaws that where incredibly sharp for biting through the armour of other bony placoderms, the jaws of Titanichthys were actually very blunt in comparison. A possible … Read more
In Depth Further Reading - A new phytosaur (Archosauriformes, Phytosauria) from the Lot’s Wife beds (Sonsela Member) within the Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic) of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (3): 573–586. - M. R. Stocker - 2012.
In Depth Elliotherium is a genus of cynodont that lived in South Africa during the late Triassic. Elliotherium is named after the Elliot formation where the holotype fossil was recovered from and combined with the word ‘therium’ which translates to English as ‘beast’. Further Reading - Elliotherium kersteni, a new tritheledontid from the lower Elliot … Read more
In Depth Giraffatitan was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus. First named in 1914 by Werner Janensch as Brachiosaurus brancai, subsequent study of the fossil material would reveal several morphological differences between B. brancai and the Brachiosaurus type species B. altithorax. This has led to the modern name of Giraffatitan, a play on … Read more