In Depth Just after its description and at the time of writing, there is some uncertainty as to exactly how old Aurornis are. The type specimen was acquired from a fossil dealer in China and was labelled as coming from the Tiaojishan Formation which is Oxfordian (late Jurassic) in age. However the describers now recognise … Read more
In Depth Originally described as a species of Dicynodon, Aulacephalodon is a genus of dicynodont therapsid that lived in Southern Africa towards the end of the Permian. At around one and a half meters long, Aulacephalodon was mid-sized for the type of animal that it was, and like its relatives, Aulacephalodon is known to have … Read more
In Depth Armadillosuchus is but one of many bizarre crocodiles from the Cretaceous period, but what makes this genus different are the armadillo-like plates in the form of flexible bands and rigid plates that run down the length of its body (hence the meaning of the genus name). Armadillosuchus is widely believed to have been … Read more
In Depth Apatosaurus or Brontosaurus? Even though Apatosaurus is one of the sauropod dinosaurs best known to palaeontology yet most people confused it with Brontosaurus. The reason for this goes all the way back to 1879, roughly two years after the naming of Apatosaurus ajax when a new sauropod specimen was given the name Brontosaurus … Read more
In Depth The description of Abrictosaurus was born out of the naming of a species of Lycorhinus earlier in 1974. The palaeontologist Richard Thulborn had named Lycorhinus consors, based upon a partial skull and skeleton, UCL B54, of what seemed to be a Lycorhinus angustidens, but lacked the tusk like teeth at the front of … Read more
In Depth Angustinaripterus has been envisioned as being like Dorygnathus because of the similar dentition. Angustinaripterus had nine pairs of teeth in the upper jaw, three in the premaxillae and six in the maxilla itself. These meshed with ten pairs that were in the mandible. Overall the teeth were quite simple in that they were … Read more
In Depth Although usually regarded as its own genus, there is on-going debate over how Aegyptopithecus might actually be the same primate as Propliopithecus. If this eventually does happen then material that has been named Aegyptopithecus will be re-named Propliopithecus. Aegyptopithecus is thought to have been a frugivore, a herbivorous creature that specialises in eating … Read more
In Depth Like with many early named dinosaur genera, the taxonomic history of Acanthopholis is in the simplest terms a mess. Numerous species have been named, reallocated, moved to other genera, and back again, but all of the fossils involved have been isolated bones found in association to one another. The first bones assigned to … Read more
In Depth Agathaumas has been envisioned as a very large ceratopsian dinosaur, potentially as much as ten meters long, that lived in what is now the USA near the end of the Cretaceous period. However most palaeontologists agree that Agathaumas is a highly dubious genus of ceratopsian since it was based upon the description of … Read more
In Depth Acratophorus is a genus of dicynodont therapsid that lived in South America during the Triassic. Further reading - Sobre nuevos terapsidos Triasicos hallados en el centro de la Provincia de Mendoza, Argentina. - Acta Geologica Lilloana (8): 91–100. - J. F. Bonaparte - 1966. - Una nueva “fauna” Triasica de Argentina (Therapsida: Cynodontia … Read more