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 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 Taveirosaurus is a tooth taxon of ornithischian dinosaur that lived in Portugal during the late Cretaceous. A tooth taxon is an animal that has only been described by teeth, and in the case of Taveirosaurus there have been many attempts to define what type of ornithiscian dinosaur that it was, almost always with … Read more
In Depth Microceratus was actually first named all the way back in 1953 as Microceratops from partial remains discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Just over fifty years later however it was realised that Microceratops had already been used to name a genus of wasp, and so this dinosaur was renamed as Microceratus. Microceratops … Read more
In Depth When the description of Pegomastax was first publically released news headlines of ‘Dracula dinosaur’ and ‘Fanged vampire parrot’ soon flooded the internet. Pegomastax however seems to be one of the heterodontosaurid dinosaurs, and although some palaeontologists have speculated that these kinds of dinosaurs used their teeth to eat small prey like lizards and … Read more
In Depth When Richard Owen first established the Dinosauria, and thus creating the term dinosaur in 1842, Hylaeosaurus was one of the three genera used to establish the group (the others were Megalosaurus and Iguanodon). Several species of Hylaeosaurus have been named over the years, but the only species currently thought to be valid is … Read more
In Depth Mongolostegus is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the early Cretaceous. Unfortunately details about Mongolostegus are hard to determine due to the overall lack of fossil remains for the genus. Further Reading - First Record of Stegosaur (Ornithischia, Dinosauria) from the Aptian-Albian of Mongolia. - Paleontological Journal 52(14). - … Read more
In Depth Foraminacephale is a genus of small pachycephalosaurid dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. Fossil material of Foraminacephale was originally assigned to the Stegoceras genus as the species S. brevis, but became the basis of a new genus in 2016 (Schott & Evans). Several partial skulls of Foraminacephale are are … Read more
In Depth Pisanosaurus is easily one of the oldest ornithischian dinosaurs that are currently known to science. Unfortunately the holotype specimen is very fragmentary, and details such as the orientation of the pubic bone are still unknown. Despite this the basic orithopod body form can still be clearly seen, Pisanosaurus is a good indicator for … Read more