In Depth Burianosaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Europe during the earlier part of the late Cretaceous. Burianosaurus is named after palaeoartist Zdeněk Burian. Further Reading - A basal ornithopod dinosaur from the Cenomanian of the Czech Republic. - Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 16(11):967-979. - D. Madzia, C. A. Boyd & … Read more
In Depth Cionodon is a dubious genus of hadrosaur that is based only upon very partial and fragmentary remains. So far two species of Cionodon continue to exist, but because of the poor quality of their fossils, it is next to impossible to assigned further remains to them, or even to identify them as synonymous … Read more
In Depth For over a hundred years Gigantophis was regarded as the largest known snake, a title that has since been handed to the even larger Titanoboa in 2009. Still even at the lower estimate of just over nine meters long Gigantophis is still bigger than the reticulated python which is thought to be the … Read more
In Depth Lukousaurus is a little known reptile that is probably a theropod dinosaur, possibly of the Ceratosauria. The overall lack of fossil remains for the genus however makes it very difficult to be certain about exactly what kind of creature Lukousaurus was. Further Reading – Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils. – Bulletin … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Kaatedocus were first recovered in 1934 and subsequently assigned to the genus Barosaurus. Later study of the fossils revealed them to actually represent a distinct genus of diplodocid sauropod. Further Reading - The skull and neck of a new flagellicaudatan sauropod from the Morrison Formation and its implication for the evolution … Read more
In Depth One of the earliest known ankylosaurs, Shamosaurus is regarded as being very similar to Gobisaurus, however there is enough fine detail differences in the skulls of the two genera that palaeontologists are confident in assigning these two ankylosaurs as separate genera. Unfortunately there are not yet enough remains to confidently estimate the size … Read more
In Depth The exact classification of Hauffiosaurus can vary depending upon the source, though most researchers concede that it is almost certainly a pliosaur. Further to this, specimens of the genus are superficially similar to the rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs. In fact, one former species of Macroplata, one of the best known rhomaleosaurids has been re-assigned to … Read more
In Depth Originally described as a nothosaur, Corosaurus is now identified as a pistosaurid, a kind of sauropterygian reptile that is related to but separate to the true nothosaurs. The pistosauroids are established around the type genus pistosaurus, and it may have been these kinds of marine reptiles that were actually ancestral to the plesiosaurs … Read more
In Depth A lot of painstaking work was undertaken by palaeontologists rebuilding this animal, and when they done they found out that they had the first ornithosuchian known from Brazil. Like relative genera, Dynamosuchus had a hooked notch in its upper jaw between the premaxilla and maxilla (the two tooth bearing bones of the upper … Read more
In Depth Catutosaurus is a genus of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaur that lived in waters around South America during the late Jurassic. Ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs like Catutosaurus were among the most successful marine reptiles of that time with fossils of them being found all over the world. Further reading - Catutosaurus gaspariniae , gen. et sp. nov. (Ichthyosauria, … Read more