In Depth Discovered back in the early days of scientific palaeontology, Eudes-Deslongchamp named the species Poekilopleuron bucklandii in honour of William Buckland, the man who named the first ever known dinosaur Megalosaurus. Additionally Eudes-Deslongchamp thought that Poekilopleuron may actually be the same species of dinosaur as Megalosaurus, an idea shared by the palaeontologists Fredriech von … Read more
In Depth Fushanosaurus is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur that lived in Asia during the late Jurassic. Further reading - A new titanosauriform dinosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from Late Jurassic of Junggar Basin, Xinjiang. - Global Geology (in Chinese). 38 (3): 581–588. X.-R. Wang, W.-H. Wu, T. Li, Q. Ji, Y.-X. Li & J.-F. Guo - … Read more
In Depth Genyodectes was first named in 1901 by A. S. Woodward who described it upon the basis of partial premaxilla and maxilla bones as well as a dentary. Because of the lack of other fossils the genus languished in relative obscurity for over a hundred years, with occasional references citing Genyodectes as a nomen … Read more
In Depth What information can be garnered about Hypselosaurus is that it was a medium sized titanosaur that lived in what is now Western Europe at the end of the Cretaceous period. Unfortunately it is very difficult to go beyond this because of the incomplete nature of recovered specimens (despite the popular image presented in … Read more
In Depth Xianshanosaurus is a genus of titanosaur that lived in China during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A preliminary report on the new dinosaurian fauna from the Cretaceous of the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province of central China. - Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea 25(1):43-56. - J. L�, L. Xu, X. Jiang, … Read more
In Depth Like with many early theropods, especially European ones, Metriacanthosaurus was originally named as a species of Megalosaurus, a dinosaur that in the early years of palaeontology ended up being used as a wastebasket taxon for almost any theropod remains. The initial naming was made by the German palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, who named … Read more
In Depth Changyuraptor is another of an increasing number of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that have been dubbed ‘four-winged dromaeosaurs’. This is because Changyuraptor did not just have well developed pennaceous feathers on the arms; they also grew from the back of the legs. The first of these dromaeosaurs to be described was Microraptor which is speculated … Read more
In Depth Named in 2001, Quilmesaurus is so far known only from two right leg bones, and one of those is incomplete. This makes it very hard to establish details about Quilmesaurus, but assuming that the genus has similar body proportions to other abelisaurid dinosaurs then it is possible to scale the existing fossils of … Read more
In Depth Barapasaurus was an Early Jurassic sauropod that seems to be caught in between other sauropod forms. The vertebrae of Barapasaurus are solid which has seen this sauropod placed within the Cetiosauridae, however the narrow sacrum is more characteristic of the Vulcanodontidae sauropods. Palaeontologists are split as to which placement is the most valid … Read more
In Depth As a basal therizinosaur Beipiaosaurus revealed some surprising characteristics, hence the species name inexpectus. One of these characteristics is the underdeveloped inner toes, something that is very different to later therizinosaurids which have all four toes developed and in contact with the ground. This has been taken as an indication of a three … Read more