In Depth Megalancosaurus is one of the better known of the drepanosaurs, a special group of reptiles that possessed tails that could hook around branches. With an additional hook on the end of their tails, Megalancosaurus are believed to have walked along the branches of Triassic era tree canopies, hunting for small invertebrates to eat. … Read more
In Depth Originally named as a species of Shweboemys, Brontochelys is a little known genus of side-necked turtle that lived in Pakistan during the early Miocene. The type species is named in honour of Eugene Gaffney for his work on turtles. Further Reading - A review of the fossil Pelomedusidae (Testudines, Pleurodira) of Asia. Breviora … Read more
In Depth So far at the time of writing the only known fossils of Kol are of a complete foot. This foot however is enough to identify Kol as an alvarezsaurid dinosaur, and one that was fairly big. The foot of the Kol holotype specimen is about twice the size of the foot of Shuvuuia, … Read more
In Depth Coahuilaceratops attained overnight fame amongst the ceratopsian dinosaurs because it is thought to have the longest brow horns of any within the group. Although no single complete horn has yet been found, palaeontologists studying Coahuilaceratops spent a lot of careful time and effort comparing the available material to other similar chasmosaurine ceratopsians to … Read more
In Depth Comahuesuchus is a notosuchian crocodile that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous period. The description of Anatosuchus in 2003 led to the idea that Anatosuchus and Comahuesuchus were close relatives, however a 2006 paper by Andrade, Bertini and Pinheiro came to the conclusion that they were not closely related. Instead a … Read more
In Depth Ganzhousaurus is an oviraptorid dinosaur that displays a mix of primitive and advanced features which suggests that it is transitory in form between primitive oviraptorids that were around earlier in the Cretaceous, and more advanced ones alive later in the Cretaceous. Though since the fossils for Ganzhousaurus are from a Maastrichtian era deposit, … Read more
In Depth The history of Sinosaurus as a dinosaur taxon goes all the way back to 1948 when the genus was first formally described. However this description was based upon very partial remains something that meant the genus fell by the wayside in popularity stakes, with some palaeontologists even treating the Sinosaurus genus as a … Read more
In Depth Prognathodon was a late mosasaur that showed a trend towards a different kind of predation that saw it living like the much earlier basal placodont reptiles of the Triassic such as Placodus. This means that Prognathodon specialised in eating tough shelled prey items like shellfish, ammonites and turtles. The diet of Prognathodon was … Read more
In Depth Although only a little dinosaur, the taxonomic history of Coelurus can be confusing to say the least. The first small theropod dinosaur from the famous Morrison Formation to be named, in the past the genus Coelurus has crossed paths with other small Morrison formation theropods such as Ornitholestes and Tanycolagreus. In addition to … Read more
In Depth Tastavinsaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in Spain during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new sauropod: Tastavinsaurus sanzi gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) of Spain. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28 (3): 712–731.- J. I. Canudo, R. Royo-Torres, & G. Cuenca-Besc�s - 2008.