In Depth Like with many sauropod dinosaurs, Agustinia is known from incomplete remains. Some of these remains however revealed a startling revelation in that this sauropod had what appeared to be armour along its back similar in appearance to the plates of Stegosaurus, a herbivorous but completely different kind of dinosaur. This is in particular … Read more
In Depth The overall appearance of Velociraptor was that of a lightweight bipedal hunter built for speed, though differed from most other known dromaeosaurid dinosaurs by having an upturned snout at the front of a long, low skull. The skull was filled with small teeth, suitable for taking meat off a carcass, but not for … Read more
In Depth Riabininohadros is a genus of large ornithischian dinosaur that lived on Europe towards the end of the Cretaceous period. Further Reading - Riabininohadros, a New Genus for the Ornithischian Dinosaur Orthomerus weberae (Ornithopoda, Iguanodontia) from the Late Cretaceous of Crimea. - Paleontological Journal. 54 (3): 112–114. - A. V. Lopatin & A. O. … Read more
In Depth Initially described as a species of Melanorosaurus, M. thabanensis was elevated to its oven genus level and named Meroktenos in 2016. Meroktenos is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that once lived in Africa during the late Triassic. Further Reading - New material and revision of Melanorosaurus thabanensis, a basal sauropodomorph from the Upper … Read more
In Depth The holotype fossils of Pneumatoraptor are noted for containing numerous air cavities, which in turn inspired the name Pneumatoraptor which means ‘air thief’. The type species name is in honour of Geza Fodor, the person who provided funding for the expedition the expedition that recovered the Pneumatoraptor remains. Pneumatoraptor was a small maniraptorian … Read more
In Depth Dapingfangornis is a genus of enantiornithe bird that lived in China during the Cretaceous. Further Reading - New Eoenantiornithid Bird from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Western Liaoning, China. - Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 80(1):38-41. - L. Li, Y. Duan, D. Hu, L. Wang, S. Cheng and L. Hou - 2006.
In Depth Gorgosaurus had the same basic body plan of all tyrannosaurids with a large head on an s-shaped neck, small arms and bipedal stance. With around sixty teeth in its mouth (there is some variance between specimens) Gorgosaurus shared a common trait with other tyrannosaurids of its size, as the larger the tyrannosaurids go … Read more
In Depth So far only known from a partial skeleton, Chialingosaurus was still one of the first and hence most important stegosaur discoveries to take place in Asia. At up to four meters long it seems to have been small but comparable in size to Chungkingosaurus that is also known from the Shaximiao Formation. However … Read more
In Depth Sometimes when people hear the name Antarctosaurus they assume that this dinosaur lived in Antarctica where in actuality it lived in Argentina. Antarctosaurus means ‘southern lizard’ and here it is a reference to being found on a southern continent. However the real problem with Antarctosaurus is that it is known from very incomplete … Read more
In Depth Since its naming in 1915, the Kangnasaurus genus of dinosaur has often been treated as dubious, mostly because the holotype of this dinosaur is actually a tooth. Other hind limb remains were also attributed to the genus however, and these remains do actually seem to be distinct enough for some to consider Kangnasaurus … Read more