In Depth Zuoyunlong is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in China during the early stages of the late Cretaceous. In terms of physical development, hadrosauroid dinosaurs were in between the earlier iguanodonts of the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous, and the later hadrosaurids that were most common by the end of the late … Read more
In Depth At times the skull of Naashoibitosaurus has been attributed to Kritosaurus, while the post cranial skeleton attributed to Edmontosaurus. This is because the skull has been challenged as representing a growth stage of Kritosaurus, though other studies have shown that it is different enough to be regarded as its own genus. Currently however, … Read more
In Depth Hypacrosaurus means ‘near the highest lizard’, and in this context the ‘lizard’ was actually the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs in the ecosystems of late Cretaceous North America, but only about a third larger than Hypacrosaurus in the largest individuals (twelve meters for large individual Tyrannosaurus compared to nine meters for … Read more
In Depth First discovered in 1998 when a road construction uncovered the remains, it took a team of palaeontologists all the way to 2012 to publish a description about this dinosaur. Yueosaurus is regarded as being a basal ornithopod dinosaur, the fifth known from Asia and the most Southern at the time of its discovery. … Read more
In Depth With most of the skeleton known and represented by several individuals, Utahceratops is one of the better known ceratopsian dinosaurs, which often are named only from partial skulls. At about five meters long Utahceratops was roughly mid-sized for a quadrupedal ceratopsian, dinosaur, but the skull seems to be oversized with a length of … Read more
In Depth Protohadros is a genus of medium to large ornithopod dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. Protohadros means ‘first hadrosaur)’, and reflects the idea at the time of its description that the genus may represent the earliest true hadrosaur in North America. However, since Protohadros has been named, several new … Read more
In Depth Paranthodon remains were first described when they were incorrectly included with the remains of a parieasaur named Anthodon. The inclusion of these remains also gave the incorrect identification for Anthodon as a dinosaur instead of a parieasaur until 1912 when Robert Broom separated an upper jaw from the genus. While Broom correctly identified … Read more
In Depth Sahaliyania was discovered and described along with another new hadrosaurid dinosaur called Wulagasaurus, however this one appears to have been a saurolophine hadrosaurid, whereas Sahaliyania is more clearly defined as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid. Initially based upon the description of a partial skull, further fossil remains have since been attributed to Sahaliyania. Aside from … Read more
In Depth At the time of its description only known from a partial skull, Zaraapelta is a genus of ankylosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous. The Zaraapelta holotype skull was found in the Barun Goyot Formation of Mongolia, indicating that Zaraapelta shared the same ecosystem as two other ankylosaurid genera called Tarchia and Saichania. … Read more
In Depth Fostoria is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Australia during the Cretaceous. Further reading - Fostoria dhimbangunmal, gen. et sp. nov., a new iguanodontian (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) from the mid-Cretaceous of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 39(1):e1564757:1-18. - P. R. Bell, T. Brougham, M. C. Herne, … Read more