In Depth Although the body is still unknown, Thililua is considered to be a polycotylid plesiosaur. Named after the genus Polycotylus, polycotylids had plesiosaur shaped bodies, but proportionately shorter necks and longer jaws, with probably the most famous example of this group being Dolichorhynchops. Although most polycotylid fossils are known from North America, the presence … Read more
Intro of Struthiomimus Struthiomimus remains were actually known all the way back to 1901, but were interpreted by Lawrence Lambe to belong to Ornithomimus altus, the first ornithomimid to be named. In 1917 however, Henry Fairfield Osborn (the man who is perhaps best remembered for naming Tyrannosaurus) identified key differences in the bones, especially the … Read more
In Depth Sometimes dubbed the ‘Asian Iguanodon’, Probactrosaurus is no way near as well-known as its older and far more famous relative (which was actually the second dinosaur genus named, and the first one named that ate plants). At roughly five and a half meters in length Probactrosaurus was actually quite small when compared to … Read more
In Depth Chupacabrachelys is a genus of side-necked turtle known to have lived in what is now Texas during the late Cretaceous. As a side necked (pleurodiran) turtle, the head would not have retracted under the shell, but rather folded back under the side. Further to being a pleurodiran, Chupacabrachelys is also a bothremydid turtle, … Read more
In Depth Dollosaurus is a genus of mosasaur that swam and hunted in the seas of Europe during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Dollosaurus was named after Louis Dollo, a Belgian palaeontologist who is remembered for his work studying mosasaurs. Further Reading - Dental and vertebral morphology of the enigmatic mosasaur Dollosaurus (Reptilia, … Read more
In Depth At eight meters Gigantoraptor is the largest oviraptorid dinosaur currently known, and is many times larger than other members of the group. Problems that exist at the time of writing are the remains that while incomplete show two characteristics belonging to different lifestyles. What can be ascertained is that Gigantoraptor had a long … Read more
In Depth Theriosuchus is a genus of small neosuchian crocodylomorph that was fairly common across Europe, but is now also known to have lived in North Africa and Asia. Two former species of Theriosuchus, T. ibericus and T. sympiestodon, now reside in their own genus, Sabresuchus. Further Reading - A new species of Theriosuchus (Atoposauridae, … Read more
In Depth Dashanpusaurus is identified as a macronarian sauropod that might by related to the North American Camarasaurus, which means that it may have been a more specialised high browser. This fits in with another genus of sauropod from the Lower Shaximiao Formation called Abrosaurus that has also been considered to be a possible relative … Read more
In Depth Punatitan is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. The genus name of this dinosaur is a reference to the thin air high up in the Andes mountain range where the holotype fossils of Punatitan were first discovered. Punatitan was named alongside the genus Bravasarus in … Read more
In Depth Chebsaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that is known to have lived in what is now Algeria during the Jurassic. The genus name for Chebsaurus means ‘young man lizard’, from the Arabic word ‘cheb’, combined with the Ancient Greek for lizard. This is because the holotype specimen of this dinosaur is from … Read more