The woolly mammoth of the ice age Mammuthus primigenius is more popularly known as the woolly mammoth that today is regarded as the poster animal for the ice age, a colloquial term for the Pleistocene period which saw a series of glaciations across the upper latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and an overall reduction in global … Read more
In Depth A relative of the more famous Leptictidium, Megaleptictis is perceived to have been a small insectivorous mammal that roamed around the forest floors of Eocene North America. Further Reading - New large leptictid insectivore from the Late Paleogene of South Dakota, USA. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica - Tj Meehan & Larry D. Martin … Read more
In Depth Zhejiangosaurus is not completely known, nor does it seem to show any special features beyond being a nodosaurid. This identification is itself important however since the only two other Asian nodosaurids named before this, Zhongyuansaurus and Liaoningosaurus, have now been re-classified as ankylosaurids. At the time of its description this makes Zhejiangosaurus the … Read more
In Depth Macroplata is classed as a rhomaleosaurid pliosaur, a group notable for having proportionately longer necks and smaller skulls than the more well-known short necked large skulled pliosaurs such as Liopleurodon, Simolestes and of course Pliosaurus itself. A better analogy is that Macroplata looks like a cross between the longer necked plesiosaurs of the … Read more
In Depth Pissarrachampsa is a genus of terrestrial crocodile that lived in Brazil during the late Cretaceous. The precise point of time of the Cretaceous is still debated as some point between the Turonian and the Maastrichtian. All that is known for certain is that the holotype fossils of Pissarrachampsa came from the Vale do … Read more
In Depth The crocodiles seem to have been quite resilient to the effects of the KT extinction sixty-five million years ago that marked the death of the dinosaurs, as Brachychampsa is yet another genus of crocodylian that is known to have existed for several million years before and after this extinction event. Dyrosaurus is another … Read more
In Depth For its type Macroleter were fairly large predators that were procolopophonid parareptiles. One former species of Seymouria, S. agilis has been re-assigned as a second species of Macroleter. This makes the type species of Macroleter, M. poezicus known from Russia, and the second species, M. agilis known from the USA. There is also … Read more
In Depth Scaphognathus acquired the somewhat unglamorous name of ‘Tub jaw’ because of the robust snout construction. Still when first described, Scaphognathus was included into the pterodactyloidea because of the lack of a tail. This lack of tail actually misled the original examiner as in realty it had just failed to fossilise with the rest … Read more
In Depth Brasinorhynchus is a genus of rhynocosaur that lived in South America during the Triassic. Further Reading - A new rhynchosaur from south Brazil (Santa Maria Formation) and rhynchosaur diversity patterns across the Middle-Late Triassic boundary. - Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 90:593-609. - C. L. Schultz, M. C. Langer & F. C. Montefeltro - 2016.
In Depth Originally named in 1997 as Titanosaurus colberti by Jain and Bandyopadhyay, a new study by Wilson and Upchurch in 2003 saw the fossils renamed as a new genus, Isisaurus. Isisaurus was named after the Indian Statistical Institute and should not be confused with the goddess Isis from Ancient Egyptian mythology. Isisaurus was a … Read more