In Depth The scattered fossils of Anzu were first being found as far back as 1998, and in time four individual discoveries were pieced together to form one oviraptorid. Anzu now has a enough fossils to reveal the skull as well as around seventy-five/eighty per cent of the total post cranial skeleton. This has now … Read more
In Depth Anomalipes is a genus of caenagnathid oviraptosaurid dinosaur that lived in asia during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new caenagnathid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group of Shandong, China, with comments on size variation among oviraptorosaurs. - Scientific Reports. 8: Article number 5030. - Yilun Yu, Kebai Wang, Shuqing Chen, … Read more
In Depth Arcovenator is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now France during the late cretaceous. Although only known from partial remains, similarities to relative genera such as Majungasaurus from Madagascar, as well as Indosaurus and Rajasaurus from India have been made. Comparison to these others has led to speculation … Read more
In Depth Though only known from fragmentary remains, Graciliraptor has been a key find for our understanding of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs as it represents one of the earliest known appearances of such a creature. At the time of its description in 2004, Graciliraptor was considered to be a close relative of the famous Microraptor, and like … Read more
In Depth Albertavenator is a genus of troodontid dinosaur that lived in Canada towards the end of the Cretaceous period. The genus name translates as ‘Alberta hunter’, a reference to where and how it lived. The type species name, P. curriei is in honour of paleontologist Philip J. Currie. Further Reading - A new species … Read more
In Depth Back in the Cretaceous North America was divided into two land masses due to the presence of the Western Interior Seaway, a shallow sea that submerged the central portions of North America all the way from Canada to Mexico. These two land masses were Appalachia in the east, and Laramidia in the west, … Read more
In Depth The holotype fossils of Pneumatoraptor are noted for containing numerous air cavities, which in turn inspired the name Pneumatoraptor which means ‘air thief’. The type species name is in honour of Geza Fodor, the person who provided funding for the expedition the expedition that recovered the Pneumatoraptor remains. Pneumatoraptor was a small maniraptorian … Read more
In Depth Although only named from the description of hind legs, Alnashetri has been identified as an alvaresauroid. These small theropods are noted for having short stubby arms with single claws pointing out, which may helped them to feed upon certain types of prey like insects. This remains unknown for certain with Alnashetri since at … Read more
In Depth Lourinhanosaurus is a tantalising enigma for palaeontologists as although vastly incomplete the remains seem to reveal a sinraptorid theropod (the theropod group typified by Sinraptor). If true then this would make Lourinhanosaurus the first sinraptorid to be discovered outside of China, but other palaeontologists have suggested that Lourinhanosaurus might also be a megalosauroid … Read more
In Depth Avimimus acquired its name from its bird like characteristics that have led to some controversy as to how much like a bird it really was. Like in modern birds the hand bones were fused together, and the presence of pronounced quill knobs on the lower arm bones confirms that Avimimus did at least … Read more