In Depth Paraxenisaurus is a genus of deinocheirid dinosaur that lived in Mexico during the late Cretaceous. Deinocheirid dinosaurs like Paraxenisaurus are a special sub group of ornithomimosaurs that are more similar to the Deinocheirus genus (Deinocheirus was for a long time known only from a gigantic pair of arms until the early twenty-first century … Read more
In Depth Embasaurus is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in Kazakhstan during the Early Cretaceous. For a long time Embasaurus has been considered to be a basal tyrannosauroid, but a later study by George Olshevsky raised the idea that Embasaurus might have been a megalosauroid. Further Reading - Two dinosaurian vertebrae from … Read more
In Depth The name Orkoraptor is derived from ‘Orr-Korr’ the Aoniken name for the La Leona River of Argentina.When first described, Orkoraptor was thought to be a coelurosaur thus a possible tyrannosauroid. However later studies have since caused this notion to be dismissed as Orkoraptor seems to actually be a form of late surviving allosaurid, … Read more
In Depth Vespersaurus is a genus of noasaurine theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous. At the time of its description Vespersaurus is notable for two reasons. First is that the Vespersaurus holotype fossils were discovered in an area that back in the early Cretaceous was part of a huge desert, … Read more
In Depth Although only described from a partial maxilla, Geminiraptor has still been a significant discovery since it was the first troodont dinosaur known to have lived in early Cretaceous North America. The name Geminiraptor was established to honour Celina and Marina Suarez, twin sisters and the geologists who discovered the Geminiraptor holotype specimen. Further … Read more
In Depth Serikornis is a genus of small anchiornithid dinosaur that lived in China during the late Jurassic. The holotype individual of Serikornis clearly shows the extent of feathers covering the body of this small dinosaur. What is surprising though is how much these feathers varied in relation to different parts of the body. A … Read more
In Depth Named after the title character in the 1942 film Bambi, Bambiraptor was a small dromaeosaurid dinosaur that has caused a lot of excitement in the science of palaeontology. Discovered by a fourteen year-old Wes Linster in 1993, the Bambiraptor holotype is of an exceptionally well preserved individual that is estimated to be around … Read more
In Depth A little known theropod from the mid Jurassic of China, Shidaisaurus was so far only been described from partial remains. However, the Shidaisaurus remains were discovered along with the remains of several other individual dinosaurs, and the partial remains of an unknown theropod skull found nearby with the skeletal remains of a sauropod … Read more
In Depth What would otherwise be an unassuming little fossil dinosaur, it is near impossible to talk about Sciurumimus without bringing up the subject of feathered dinosaurs. Exquisitely well preserved upon a slab, examination of the holotype specimen of a juvenile Sciurumimus under ultraviolet light revealed the presence of primitive protofeathers that would have covered … Read more
In Depth When Shanag was first described the genus was described as a member of the Dromaeosauridae, but later studies have refined this further to suggest that Shanag was closer to dromaeosaurid genera such as Microraptor. So far Shanag is only known from partial jaw material, but analysis and comparisons to other related genera suggests … Read more