In Depth Hagryphus is another one of those dinosaur genera that teases us about a prospect of being unusually large, yet known only from partial remains, in this case a hand. At about thirty centimetres long this hand is larger than that known for any other oviraptosaur with the sole current exception of Gigantoraptor. This … Read more
In Depth Guanlong is well-known among palaeontological circles as the first tyrannosaur, although new discoveries in the future may take this epithet away from Guanlong. The discovery of Guanlong lends support to the theory that the early origins of the tyrannosaurs can be traced back to Asia. From here fossil evidence from the discovery of … Read more
In Depth Fukuiraptor is a dinosaur that really does not deserve the ‘raptor’ part of its name. This is because when it was discovered, one of the large hand claws was interpreted as being a ‘killing claw’ on the second toe, similar to other dromaeosaurids that have the epithet raptor. Later analysis resulted in a … Read more
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 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 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 Initially thought to be one of the most primitive birds in the fossil record, later studies have depicted Jinfengopteryx as a small troodontid theropod dinosaur. This new interpretation has been derived from observation of the form of the skull and the presence of an enlarged sickle claw on the second toe of each … Read more
In Depth Named in 2016 from a single specimen, Viavenator is another of the growing number of South American abelisaurid dinosaurs that are known to us. At a glance Viavenator does not seem to be anything special apart from being another abelisaur, however the authors of the paper describing this dinosaur have identified a combination … Read more