In Depth The discovery of Asfaltovenator was a very exciting discovery, as this was some of the best allosauroid dinosaur fossil remains discovered in South America. At the time of the genus description quite a lot was already known about the large theropod dinosaur fauna of Cretaceous South America, but possible ancestral forms of these … Read more
In Depth A relative of the world famous Protoceratops, Bagaceratops is unusual in that it is more primitive, yet appeared later. Bagaceratops seems to have been like other small ceratopsids of its kind, though most of the post cranial skeleton is still unknown. Bagaceratops would have cropped plants with its beak while also keeping an … Read more
In Depth Leptorhynchos is based upon the description of caenagnathid oviraptorid dinosaur remains discovered in the Aguaja Formation of Texas, establishing the type species L. gaddisi. At the same time as this description, fossils from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta and originally attributed as a species of Ornithomimus, O. elegans, have also been re-described … Read more
In Depth Ferganocephale is a dinosaur tooth taxon that might represent one of the earliest appearances of a pachycephalosaurid dinosaur. However, some researchers consider the teeth attributed to Ferganocephale to not be diagnostic enough to represent a new genus, and prefer to treat it as a Nomen dubium. Indeed, this is a common interpretation of … Read more
In Depth Gryphoceratops is something of an enigma since while it seems to be one of the oldest leptoceratopsids it also appears to have been one of the most advanced. Additionally while the type specimen is only that of a right lower jaw, Gryphoceratops may actually be the smallest leptoceratopsid. Another leptoceratopsid called Unescoceratops was … Read more
In Depth Cedarpelta is not a particularly famous ankylosaurid dinosaur, and it does not have a huge amount of fossils attributed to it. However it was the first ankylosaurid genera where a skull was found disarticulated (broken up during fossilisation). This might initially sound like a bad thing, but usually ankylosaurid skulls are found articulated, … Read more
In Depth 2014 saw the first instance of a dinosaur genus being described as coming from Venezuela. This genus was Laquintasaura, a small plant eating ornithischian dinosaur, fossils of which were discovered where a road was being cut into the Venezuelan landscape. However, when Laquintasaura was discovered, the teeth of small theropod dinosaurs were also … Read more
In Depth Datanglong was a mid to large sized theropod dinosaur that lived in China during the early Cretaceous period. At the time of its description only the hip bones and dorsal vertebrae are known for this dinosaur, so we have to take a best guess as to what this dinosaur looked like. Unfortunately Datanglong … Read more
In Depth Dongyangosaurus is a genus of titanosaurid dinosaur that is known to have lived in China at some point during the earlier stages of the late Cretaceous, Though only known from partial remains, Dongyangosaurus has been confidently identified as a saltasaurid titanosaur, and similar in form to Saltasaurus which is known from South America. … Read more
In Depth Rativates is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new ornithomimid theropod from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - B. McFeeters, M. J. Ryan, C. Schr�der-Adams & T. M. Cullen - 2016.