In Depth Barbaridactylus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in North Africa during the late Cretaceous. Barbaridactylus has been identified as a nyctosauird pterosaur, a kind usually associated with coastal areas and hunting for fish. Further Reading - Late Maastrichtian pterosaurs from North Africa and mass extinction of Pterosauria at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. - … Read more
In Depth Castoroides is another example of how back in the Pleistocene animals were just bigger than they were today. Also known as the ‘giant beaver’, Castoroides is not just the largest beaver that we currently know about, but it is the largest rodent known to have ever lived on the North American continent. At … Read more
In Depth Bonitasaura is a genus of what seems to have been fairly small titanosaurs that lived in Argentina during the Late Cretaceous. The holotype individual seems to have been a subadult, which means that while it was sexually mature, it still would not have been fully grown. During this phase of its life though, … Read more
In Depth Pholiderpeton was a genus of semi aquatic reptiliomorph that lived in England during the Carboniferous period. However, in recent time there has been speculation that Pholiderpeton and another well-known genus named Eogyrinus may actually represent the same genus of animal. If this is true then the first genus to be named would take … Read more
In Depth Although not very well known, Turkanapithecus appears to be similar to other prehistoric primates like Proconsul and Afropithecus. Turkanapithecus is named after the Turkana Lake region of Kenya, with the type species name meaning ‘from Kalakol’ after the Kalakol river where it was found. Further Reading – A second new Miocene hominoid from … Read more
In Depth Kimbetopsalis is a genus of multituberculatan mammal that lived in the USA not long after the asteroid impact that marked the KT extinction that ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Kimbetopsalis has been identified as a member of the Multituberculata due to the large number of cusps that are clearly visible upon the … Read more
In Depth Equijubus seems to have been a primitive hadrosauroid from the early Cretaceous of China, though some have considered the genus to be more simply an iguanodont. Despite this, the skull of Equijubus lacks a palpebral bone, meaning that the eye did not have a bony projection jutting above it. Further Reading - The … Read more
In Depth Eoplesiosaurus was so named for its earlier appearance in the Jurassic that the far more famous Plesiosaurus. Eoplesiosaurus was still small when compared to the plesiosaurs that appeared later in the Jurassic, though it is noted as having a proportionately long neck when compared to some other genera. Further Reading - High Diversity, … Read more
In Depth Gobiatherium is the type genus of its own specific group of uintatheres, the Gobiatheriinae. This is because Gobiatherium lacks the skull horns and tusks that are common features in it relatives, though Gobiatherium still retains some distinguishing characteristics of its own. These include well developed cheek bones and an expanded nasal area where … Read more
In Depth Tetrapodophis is an interesting snake to say the least since it was the first snake genus known to still have all four legs to be named. For the most part these legs are on the border of being vestigial, yet still defined and functional enough to serve a gripping purpose. Tetrapodophis is also … Read more