In Depth Phuwiangosaurus was first named as a titanosaurid dinosaur in 1994, and was the first named sauropod dinosaur known to have come from Thailand. The name Phuwiangosaurus translates as ‘Phu Wiang lizard’ and is a reference to the district of Phu Wiang District of Thailand. The species name P. sirindhornae was in honour of … Read more
In Depth Although not very well known, Tianyuraptor is important to many palaeontologists because it is often regarded as a transitional form that links northern and southern genera of dromaeosaurids. Tianyuraptor is noted for having a smaller than usual furcula and arms that are proportionately much smaller than those of other dromaeosaurid genera. Overall, Tianyuraptor … Read more
In Depth Kryptops is a little known genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in North Africa during the Early Cretaceous. At the time of the original description in 2008, Kryptops was considered to be the most primitive known abelisaurid. Kryptops was described from a partial maxilla (main and posterior tooth bearing bone in the … Read more
In Depth Bagualosaurus is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Triassic. Bagualosaurus seems to have been somewhat transitional in form in that the skull and tooth arrangement are like those of later sauropodomorph dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus and Efraasia, yet the main body of Bagualosaurus is more theropod-like, … Read more
In Depth Latirhinus should not be confused with Altirhinus, as not only do they have similar sounding names (only difference being the position of the ’l’ and ’a’ at the start), both were hadrosaurs and both were named after the enlarged bony protuberances on their snouts. Latirhinus was a form of saurolophine hadrosaur, a type … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Australodocus were first recovered in 1909 by the famous German palaeontologist Werner Janensch, however they were not described until 2007. Further to this, not all of the original specimens could be studied since many of them were destroyed in World War 2. Out of the surviving bones, some of the vertebrae … Read more
In Depth Caudipteryx the animal. Caudipteryx is one of the most primitive oviraptosaurs so far known to us, only the genus Incisivosaurus is known to be older at the time of writing. The skull of Caudipteryx can be easily described as being box-like, and the jaws are already formed into a beak. Teeth are still … Read more
In Depth The name Pareisactus means ‘intruder’, and this came about from the observation that out of several hundred hadrosaur bones, a single fossil of a scapula (shoulder blade) belonging to a rhabdodont dinosaur was found. This scapula was subsequently used to name the genus Pareisactus. Like hadrosaurs, rhabdodonts like Pareisactus were plant eating dinosaurs. … Read more
In Depth Neuquenraptor was very nearly the first dromaeosaurid dinosaur to be discovered on the South American continent. First discovered in 1996, the holotype specimen was unofficially named Araucanoraptor argentinus in 1997. Also in 1997 another dromaeosaurid genus named Unenlagia was named from the same formation, and because this genus had a proper description, Unenlagia … Read more
In Depth Rubeosaurus originally started out as a species of Styracosaurus that was based upon partial skull remains, a partial parietal bone recovered in 1928 and a slightly more complete second specimen consisting of left and right nasal and horncore, left premaxilla, partial left orbital with horncore and almost complete right parietal with two spikes. … Read more