In Depth Lophorhothon was first discovered in the US state of Alabama in the Mooreville Chalk Formation. During the Cretaceous, this area was known as a region of Appalachia (the eastern landmass of North America at the time separated from Laramidia in the West), and what is significant about this is that when Lophorhothon was … Read more
In Depth Gobisaurus is very similar to another earlier named ankylosaur called Shamosaurus, yet there are enough differences in the skull features to be certain that these are separate genera, but ones that seem to be closely related. New analysis of the Ulansuhai Formation has also indicated that Gobisaurus may have lived around the Turonian … Read more
In Depth Pilmatueia is a genus of dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Early Cretaceous. Analysis of known vertebrae of Pilmatueia show enlarged neural spines which have led to the idea that Pilmatueia would have been similar to the much better known Amargasaurus. Further Reading - A new dicraeosaurid sauropod from … Read more
In Depth To put it bluntly, the remains of Hudiesaurus are very partial, but they do seem to belong to a mamenchisaurid sauropod, or in simpler terms, one like Mamenchisaurus. The remains which are known are without doubt huge, and comparison to other similar sauropod genera has resulted in an estimated length of around thirty … Read more
In Depth Shishugounykus is a genus of small alvareszaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Jurassic. Further Reading - A new alvarezsaurian theropod from the Upper Jurassic Shishugou Formation of western China. - Scientific Reports, 9: 11727. - Z. Qin, J. Clark, J. Choiniere & X. Xu - 2019.
In Depth Charonosaurus is immediately recognisable to its similarity to the better known Parasaurolophus. However Charonosaurus was seems to have been considerably larger than its North American cousin, as well as living later after Parasaurolophus had disappeared in North America. Like with Parasaurolophus, the crest of Charonosaurus is thought to have served both a display … Read more
In Depth The name of the dinosaur Cathartesaura can be quite confusing. Broken down it can read as ‘Cathartes lizard’, with ‘Cathartes’ a reference to the Cathartes genus which includes the modern day turkey vulture. The full genus and species name of the Turkey vulture however is Cathartes aura, and when you remove the space … Read more
In Depth Lingwulong is a genus of dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Jurassic. At the time of writing, Lingwulong is known from the remains of several individuals representing differing growth stages. Further Reading - A new Middle Jurassic diplodocoid suggests an earlier dispersal and diversification of sauropod dinosaurs. - Nature Communications. … Read more
In Depth Living in the late Triassic, Ingentia is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that already shows thickening of bones and a growth to a large stocky size, a foreshadowing of the huge sizes that sauropod dinosaurs would attain in the Jurassic. Since being named Ingentia is regarded as being similar in form to other … Read more
In Depth While Carnotaurus had the standard theropod morphology of a bipedal animal with large head and small arms, it still possessed a number of features that made it quite unique among the large theropods. One such feature is the arms, which are not just small like you would expect, but are positively tiny. Further … Read more