In Depth As the name suggests, Archaeoistiodactylus is the oldest known istiodactylid pterosaur. Further Reading – A new pterosaur (Pterosauria) from Middle Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of western Liaoning, China. – Global Geology 13:113-118. – J. L� & X. Fucha – 2018.
In Depth Sordes was quite a significant discovery in that the type specimen was found to have had an extensive covering of pycnofibres all over its body. This for lack of a better term would mean that in life Sordes would have appeared hairy. Given that these pycnofibres, or ‘hairs’ in the loosest sense, were … Read more
In Depth Adelolophus is a genus of hadrosaur that lived in the USA during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - New hadrosaurid (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) specimens from the lower-middle Campanian Wahweap Formation of southern Utah. Hadrosaurs 156-173. - T. A. Gates, Z. Jinnah, C. Levitt & M. A. Getty - 2014.
In Depth Neosteneosaurus is a genus of thalattosuchian that lived in the waters of Europe during the mid Jurassic. The establishment of the Neosteneosaurus genus was born out of a major review of the old Steneosaurus genus which for a long time was treated as a wastebasket formed fossils that had a basic superficial likeness … Read more
In Depth Fukuititan is the first ever sauropod dinosaur known to have lived in what is now Japan. The holotype individual of Fukuititan seems to have been fairly small in terms of overall sauropod sizes, and may be a reflection of living upon a smaller land mass. Based upon similarity between the caudal (tail) vertebrae, … Read more
In Depth Gobiraptor is a genus of oviraptorid dinosaur that lived in Mongolia towards the end of the Late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new baby oviraptorid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. - PLOS ONE. 14 (2). - Sungjin Lee, Yuong-Nam Lee, Anusuya Chinsamy, Junchang L�, Rinchen Barsbold & … Read more
In Depth Aetobarbakinoides is considered to be one of the oldest aetosaurs currently known to us. Only Aetosauroides from Argentina and Stagonolepis from Scotland can match Aetobarbakinoides for age, but together they show that even in the earliest known appearances of aetosaurs, they were already widespread across what would become South America and Europe. Aetobarbakinoides … Read more
In Depth Plesioplatecarpus was initially named as a species of the genus Clidastes by Edward Drinker Cope back in 1874 during a period dubbed the ‘bone wars’. Later this species was assigned to the genus Platecarpus, before finally being named as an independent genus in 2011. Although different to Platecarpus, Plesioplatecarpus is still recognised as … Read more
In Depth Laplatasaurus was initially named in 1927 by the famous palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, however a full description was not published until 1929, which is why Laplatasaurus is credited as being named in 1929. Laplatasaurus has a somewhat confusing relationship with the titanosaurid Titanosaurus. One former species of Titanosaurus, T. madagascariensis was in 1933 … Read more
In Depth The material of Vagaceratops was first removed from its block in 2001 when palaontologists identified it as a species of Chasmosaurus, C. irvinensis. Further study in 2010 however revealed it to be different enough to give it its own genus. Normal procedure for this occurrence is to take the specific species name of … Read more