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 Kongonaphon is a genus of ornithodiran archosaur that lived in Madagascar during the Triassic. As far as Triassic archosaurs go Kongonaphon was tiny, and in itself the holotype specimen is a rare example of such a small creature. Kongonaphon also had small conical teeth, which combines with the small overall body size, suggests … Read more
In Depth Hyperodapedon is one of the best known rhynchosaurs that were specialised herbivores that lived during the Triassic which had large incisor teeth that are thought to have been used to break open the seeds of extinct plants called seed ferns. Once the seed husk was split open, the softer internal parts were mashed … 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 Whereas mosasaurs are usually represented by the larger forms such as Mosasaurus hunting and killing other marine reptiles, Yaguarasaurus as a plioplatercarpine would have used speed to hunt smaller and faster prey such as fish. To date even though the fossil material for Yaguarasaurus is largely incomplete, it still remains one of the … 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 A relative of genera such as Tanystropheus and Dinocephalosaurus, Augustaburiania may well represent one of the oldest known tanystropheid reptiles. Beyond this though it is hard to be certain about more exact details of the living animal due to the current lack of more complete remains. Further Reading - New tanystropheids (Reptilia: Archosauromorpha) … Read more