In Depth Euhelopus was originally named Helopus until it was discovered that the name had already been used for a bird. The name was altered to Euhelopus by Alfred Romer in 1956. Euhelopus was similar to the macronarian sauropods in that the fore legs were proportionately longer than the rear legs, something that would have … Read more
In Depth Campylodoniscus was originally named by Friedrich von Huene in 1929 as Campylodon ameghinoi. However, it was later realised that the genus name Campylodon had already been used to name a type of fish. Therefore in 1961, Haubold and Kuhn created a new genus named Campylodoniscus. Because of the lack of good fossils remains, … Read more
In Depth The type specimen of Nopcsaspondylus, a dorsal vertebra, was first described by Franz Nopsca in 1902, who referred it to the now dubious sauropod genus Bothriospondylus, quite surprising when you consider that the Bothriospondylus type material came from England. This vertebrae was renamed as Nopcsaspondylus in 2007, with the identification that it represents … Read more
In Depth Although it seems to have lived towards the end of the Jurassic, Suuwassea appears to have been a basal diplodocid sauropod dinosaur that was more primitive in form than other better known sauropods such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. This would make Suuwassea a late surviving form. At an estimated length approaching fifteen meters, … Read more
In Depth One of many diplodocid sauropods of the Morrison Formation (with other genera including Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and Suuwassea amongst others), Dystrophaeus has been the source of a lot of confusion. Edward Drinker Cope, the person who first named Dystrophaeus, thought that the animal belong in the much earlier Triassic period, while Othniel Charles Marsh … Read more
In Depth Named very early in the twenty-first century, Huabeisaurus has fast become one of the big names amongst the Asian sauropods. This is mostly because that so far Huabeisaurus is one of the most complete sauropods to come out of Asia, and this in turn has actually caused many palaeontologists to question the family … 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 Because this genus of possible titanosaur is only based upon teeth, Neosodon is usually treated as a highly dubious genus. First considered to have been a theropod similar to Megalosaurus, then a synonym to Iguanodon, Neosodon was later considered to be a sauropod, perhaps a brachiosaurid (similar to Brachiosaurus). The 2006 description of … Read more
In Depth Despite being a little known genus of sauropod dinosaur, Chinshakiangosaurus is one of the most important. This is because when it was described, Chinshakiangosaurus was the only example of an early sauropod dinosaur where the sides of the head can be reconstructed. This has revealed that although Chinshakiangosaurus was a sauropod, the lower … Read more