In Depth Ornithopsis was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in England during the early Cretaceous. Named in 1870 by Harry Govier Seeley, and like many European dinosaurs, Ornithopsis ended up being something of a waste basket taxon, and as time has gone on, fossils attributed to Ornithopsis have ended up being re-assigned to … Read more
In Depth Because to fossils were discovered in close proximity to one another it’s thought that Gasparinisaura lived in herds. It is one of the few dinosaurs of its kind known from South America. Gasparinisaura is named in honour of the Argentine paleontologist, Dr Zulma B. de Gasparini. Further Reading – A basal iguanodontian (Ornithischia: … Read more
In Depth Initially shelved for not being diagnostic enough, Unescoceratops was finally named in 2012. The name is derived from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Unescoceratops is particularly noted for having some of the roundest teeth of all known leptoceratopsian dinosaurs. The paper that described Unescoceratops also including the description of … Read more
In Depth Craspedodon is what is known as a tooth taxon in that the entire genus has been described upon the basis of only a few teeth. When first described by Louis Dollo in 1883, he noted that the teeth were similar to those of Iguanodon, and so for well over a hundred years Craspedodon … Read more
In Depth Bothriospondylus has had a long taxonomic history as a sauropod dinosaur yet today the genus is regarded as dubious. This is because the type material of Bothriospondylus, really just a few vertebrae, has been so badly eroded that it is impossible to identify any unique features for the genus. This makes it impossible … Read more
In Depth Classification and controversy of validity. Stenonychosaurus is a genus of troodontid dinosaur that spent much of its time depicted as a synonym to Troodon. Stenonychosaurus itself was first named in 1932 and for much of the twentieth century it was occasionally depicted as a small predatory dinosaur. Stenonychosaurus would also become the inspiration … Read more
In Depth First named in 1996, Siamotyrannus was originally thought to represent one of the earliest known occurrences of a large tyrannosaur, hence the name Siamotyrannus which combines the old name for Thailand, Siam, with the ancient Greek for tyrant. However later studies of Siamotyrannus have come to the conclusion that Siamotyrannus was not a … Read more
In Depth Not too much can be said about Tochisaurus because so far it is only known from a couple of foot bones, However these bones do seem to be most similar to those seen in troodontid dinosaurs. Additionally with lengths of about twenty-four and twenty-two centimetres long, the foot bones of Tochisaurus do indicate … Read more
In Depth Patagonia is a hot bed for dinosaur fossils, although it’s usually the dramatic giants such as Giganotosaurus and Argentinosaurus that that take the spotlight. Bonapartenykus was much smaller than these two dinosaurs, however for the purposes of palaeontology and understanding of Mesozoic Patagonia it is at least just as important. First is the … 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