In Depth Carsosaurus was large for and aigialosaurid, but the claim to fame for this reptile was the 2001 discovery of four juveniles inside the body of an adult. The high degree of preservation in the juveniles as well as their location strongly suggests that these juveniles were actually offspring waiting to be born, and … Read more
In Depth At between eleven and thirteen meters long it goes without saying that Purussaurus was an apex predator capable of attacking large prey. As a caiman crocodile, Purussaurus had an extremely stout and robust skull that housed large conical teeth suited for gripping and holding onto powerful prey. Purussaurus is one of the growing … Read more
In Depth This small mammal is most important for being the earliest known dryolestoid mammal from South America. However it is more famous for its unusual arrangement of teeth. Cronopio had very slender jaws and in the centre of the top jaw there were two enlarged canine teeth, something which has given rise to the … Read more
In Depth Rhinconichthys was first named in 2010, from fossils that had been discovered in England. Then in 2016 a description of two new species, R. uyenoi from Japan and R. purgatoirensis from the USA were described, revealing to us that this fish genus potentially had a global distribution. Rhinconichthys is noted for the large … Read more
In Depth As a member of the Basilosauridae, Masracetus was a relative of the famous Basilosaurus, and comparable in terms of skull size and body width. However, as in other relative genera such as Cynthiacetus, the vertebrae of Masracetus were much shorter than the vertebrae of Basilosaurus, indicating a proportionately shorter body. Masracetus was named … Read more
In Depth Crichtonsaurus seems to have been a fairly small genus of ankylosaur that lived in China during the earlier stages of the Late Cretaceous period. As an ankylosaur Crichtonsaurus would have been a squat quadrupedal dinosaur that browsed upon low growing plants. At the time of writing two species of Crichtonsaurus have been identified … Read more
In Depth Fossils sitting in a museum and sometimes thought to belong to one kind of ceratopsian dinosaur are sometimes found to actually represent another upon later examination. This is how others such as Mojoceratops and Spinops were discovered, and is also how Ojoceratops was discovered. Ojoceratops was classed as Torosaurus, but is thought to … Read more
In Depth Gavialimimus is a genus of mosasaur that lived in waters around North Africa during the latest Cretaceous. Gavialimimus is noted for its jaws which are substantially longer and more slender than those of most other mosasaurs. This would clearly be an adaptation for specialised feeding, possibly for either fish or squid. This may … Read more
In Depth Makhaira is a genus of pliosaur that lived in waters that once submerged parts of Russia during the early Cretaceous. Due to lack of fossil material, little is known about the overall details of Makhaira. But these remains seem to have come from a small to medium sized pliosaur. The known teeth of … Read more
In Depth At the time of the genus description very little is known about Triopticus. Only known from a partially preserved braincase, we don’t know the size of Triopticus, what it ate, or even what kind of creature it was other than just giving it the tentatively cautious title of being an archosauriform. What we … Read more