Parvicursor

In Depth        Parvicursor is a genus of alvarezsaur known to have lived in Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous.‭ ‬Like with some relatives,‭ ‬Parvicursor had hands reduced to a‭ ‬single stubby horn which was likely used to punch holes into termite mounds so that an individual Parvicursor could feed upon the termites within. Further Reading -‭ … Read more

Jucha

In Depth        Jucha is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur that lived in Russian waters during the early Cretaceous.‭ ‬Jucha is noted for being very primitive in form for an elasmosaurid plesiosaur,‭ ‬though it is uncertain if Jucha was an early development,‭ ‬or perhaps a later surviving example of‭ ‬aprimitive elasmosaurid plesisoaur. Further reading -‭ ‬A … Read more

Segnosaurus

In Depth        Much of Segnosaurus is still unknown and as such reconstructions of Segnosaurus are usually based with the addition of Erlikosaurus material‭ ‬to fill in the missing parts.‭ ‬Although very similar to one another,‭ ‬Segnosaurus has a key difference in the mouth in that the outer surface of the lower jaw begins at the … Read more

Araeoscelis

In Depth        Araeoscelis is another representative of the early diapsids. The teeth of Araeoscelis were quite large and blunter than its contemporary Petrolacosaurus, suggesting that it specialised in insects with tougher bodies.        Although officially considered a diapsid with two fenestrae behind the eye socket, the lower fensetra was closed with bone, meaning that Araeoscelis could … Read more

Oxalaia

In Depth        Although only currently known from partial snout remains,‭ ‬it is still enough material to declare Oxalaia a spinosaurid due to the unique nature of the snout.‭ ‬Spinosaurid teeth were also known from the fossil site before the current material was discovered,‭ ‬and may‭ ‬have‭ ‬belonged to Oxalaia in life.‭ ‬With its total length … Read more

Karongasaurus

In Depth        Although named from only partial remains,‭ ‬Karongasaurus is truly a dinosaur genus of the information age since its description was the first to be published solely online.‭ ‬The genus name Karongasaurus is in reference to the Karonga district of Malawi combined with the Ancient Greek for‭ ‘‬lizard‭’‬.‭ ‬The species name is in honour … Read more

Scelidosaurus

In Depth        With study of Scelidosaurus going all of the way back until the mid-nineteenth century,‭ ‬Scelidosaurus is one of the oldest genera of dinosaur known.‭ ‬In addition to that,‭ ‬out of‭ ‬all the dinosaurs that are known from the British Isles,‭ ‬Scelidosaurus is represented by some of the most complete fossil material.        Scelidosaurus was … Read more

Afromimus

In Depth        When the dinosaur Afromimus was first described in‭ ‬2017‭ ‬it was as an ornithomimosaur,‭ ‬however a later study in‭ ‬2019‭ ‬led to Afromimus being described as an abelisaur,‭ ‬specifically a noasaurid.‭ ‬Unfortunately Afromimus is still only known from partial remains,‭ ‬making details of this dinosaur difficult to know for certain. Further Reading -‭ … Read more

Andesaurus

In Depth        Named after the Andes Mountains,‭ ‬Andesaurus was a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from South America,‭ ‬but one known from only incomplete remains.‭ ‬This makes it hard to be certain about such things as a total size or even a preferred diet beyond just general plants.‭ ‬The vertebrae of Andesaurus though suggest that the genus … Read more

Glishades

In Depth        Glishades is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous.‭ ‬Since a paper was published suggesting that Glishades is actually an indeterminate juvenile‭ (‬Campione et al,‭ ‬2012‭)‬,‭ ‬the genus has become widely regarded as a nomen dubium. Further Reading -‭ ‬Glishades ericksoni,‭ ‬a new hadrosauroid‭ (‬Dinosauria:‭ ‬Ornithopoda‭) … Read more