In Depth Another Asian tyrannosaur that was named early in 2016, Timurlengia has been named from isolated fossil remains cantered around a braincase that was first discovered in 2004. The braincase lay in storage at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences until 2014 when Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist noted for his work … Read more
In Depth The fossil remains of Becklespinax first began their taxonomic life as a second species of Altispinax called A. altipinax. However Altispinax was previously only described from teeth and there was no firm proof that the second species remains of three vertebrae actually belonged to the type specimen teeth. Later Gregory S. Paul, noting … Read more
In Depth South America is known as the cradle of giant dinosaurs, including other massive sauropods such as Argentinosaurus. Futalognkosaurus however has more skeletal material including the vertebrae (cervical and dorsal), sacrum, ilia, right pubis and ischium and ribs. Unfortunately the skull, tail and legs are unknown. Despite the lack of this material, Futalognkosaurus still … Read more
In Depth The discovery, naming and reconstruction of Diplodocus Two factors have helped make Diplodocus famous all over the world. The first is that for a long time Diplodocus was thought to be the largest (at least in terms of length) dinosaur known to walk the Earth. The second is the large number of skeletal … Read more
In Depth Like with many dinosaurs, the remains of Elaltitan were originally described as belonging to another genus. Originally assigned by Bonarparte and Gasparini to Antarctosaurus in 1979, the remains were later described as Argyrosaurus by Jaime Powell. Later study of the remains by Philip Mannion and Alejandro Otero led to several key differences being … Read more
In Depth Tienshanosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in China during the late Jurassic. At twelve meters long Tienshanosaurus seems to have been fairly small for a sauropod dinosaur. In the past there has been some confusion concerning the validity of the genus, with the genus Euhelopus being considered to be a … Read more
In Depth Qinlingosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in China during the late Cretaceous. Very little is known for certain about Qinlingosaurus because at the time of writing this dinosaur is only known from a few vertebrae and a couple of hip bones. However, given that these fossils have been recovered from … Read more
In Depth Euskelosaurus may have been quite specialised for a sauropodomorph dinosaur since the shaft of the femur is physically twisted. This led in 1979 to a palaeontologist by the name of Heerden to suggest that Euskelosaurus might have been bow legged instead of just growing straight down like similar sauropodomorphs. The twisting of the … Read more
In Depth Dongbeititan is a genus of macronarian sauropod that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. As a macrocnarian, Dongbeititan would have been similar in form to genera such as Lusotitan, Janenshcia and Daanosaurus. Further Reading - Dongbeititan dongi, the first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning Province, China. … Read more
In Depth An interesting fact about Ornitholestes is that since it was first discovered in July of 1900, it was the first theropod dinosaur to be discovered in the twentieth century. Since this time, Ornitholestes has been regularly depicted in books, art and even dinosaur documentaries such as the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs. However, … Read more