In Depth The turbulent history of Brontosaurus For well over one hundred years there was a great question asked amongst dinosaur enthusiasts; is Brontosaurus actually Apatosaurus? Well this all began in a period of American paleontological history dubbed the ‘bone wars’, a fierce rivalry between two men named Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. … Read more
In Depth At the time of the genus description, Thanatotheristes is known only from very partially preserved skull and jaw bones. However, these bones show that Thanatotheristes was a large tyrannosaur, and one with a close similarity to Daspletosaurus. The discovery of Thanatotheristes has also added further evidence that the tyrannosaurs of Laramidia (the land … Read more
In Depth Although the genus name means crocodile, Walgettosuchus was actually a theropod dinosaur, although the single opalised vertebrae that it is known from has been criticised as not being diagnostic enough to establish a specific genus. As such Walgettosuchus is generally regarded as being what is called a nomen dubium, a genus that cannot … Read more
In Depth Discovery and classification history of Saurophaganax Saurophaganax has a complicated taxonomic history due to the fact that it is still only known from very partial remains, some of which bear a strong resemblance to the smaller but more common Allosaurus. This history dates back to the discovery of the first material over 1931 … Read more
In Depth Tornieria fossils were first found in 1907 and described the next year by the German palaeontologist Eberhard Fraas. However, at this time Fraas decided to call the new genus Gigantosaurus, but the problem with this is that the name Gigantosaurus had already been used by Harry Govier Seeley to name a genus of … Read more
In Depth 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 hands … 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 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