In Depth The problem with Bagaraatan is that it is only known from partial remains that in themselves could be placed within a variety of different theropod groups. Leading palaeontologists have described Bagaraatan as a tyrannosaur, troodontid and even a maniraptorian, all of the main carnivorous theropod classes that were active in Asia towards the … Read more
In Depth Not much is known about Baalsaurus other than it is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. Baalsaurus is named after the Baal fossil site, which is named after the ancient Phoenician god Baal. Further Reading - Baalsaurus mansillai gen. et sp. nov. a new titanosaurian … Read more
In Depth With holotype fossils initially described as specimens of Rubeosaurus, Stellasaurus is a genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. Although little fossil material exists of Stellasaurus at the time of writing, the dinosaur has been reconstructing as having two large upwards pointing spikes rising from the … Read more
In Depth Along with Magyarosaurus, Ampelosaurus is currently one of the best known sauropods from Europe and is in fact another example of a Late Cretaceous era titanosaur. Remains of Ampelosaurus have been found in what would have been a floodplain in the late Cretaceous. However when the fossils were discovered they were now near … Read more
In Depth Though only known from fragmentary remains, Graciliraptor has been a key find for our understanding of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs as it represents one of the earliest known appearances of such a creature. At the time of its description in 2004, Graciliraptor was considered to be a close relative of the famous Microraptor, and like … Read more
In Depth Segisaurus was once considered to be a very important link in the evolution of theropods because it was thought to have had solid bones instead of the hollow bones of other earlier genera such as Coelophysis. However a later study into the holotype remains that took place in 2005 (Carrano, Hutchinson & Sampson) … Read more
In Depth Along with Sinornithomimus, Shenzhousaurus is one of the few ornithomimosaurs that are known to have had gastroliths inside their stomachs. This has led to the suggestion that Shenzhousaurus had a greater leaning towards a herbivorous diet since gastroliths are usually associated with herbivorous animals. However it is not unknown for some predatory animals … Read more
In Depth Nemegtonykus is a genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia”. Scientific Reports. 9 (1). - Sungjin Lee, Jin-Young Park, Yuong-Nam Lee, Su-Hwan Kim, Junchang L�, Rinchen Barsbold & Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar - 2019.
In Depth Rapaxavis is a genus of enantiornithine bird that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - Anatomy of the Early Cretaceous bird Rapaxavis pani, a new species from Liaoning Province, China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(2):545-554. - E. M. Morschhauser, D. J. Varricchio, C. Gao, J. Liu, Z. Wang, X. … Read more
In Depth A very exciting find, the juvenile specimen of Rapetosaurus is to date the most complete titanosaurid skeleton ever found. This has allowed many of the gaps in the understanding of these dinosaurs to be filled in, including how the titanosaurs fit in among the sauropod group. This new understanding of titanosaur morphology has … Read more