In Depth Trochosuchus is a little known genus of therapsid that lived in South Africa during the Permian. Care should be taken not to confuse Trochosuchus with Trochosaurus, the type genus of the therapsid group which Trochosuchus belongs too. Further Reading – Catalogue of types and figured specimens of fossil vertebrates in the American Museum … Read more
In Depth Pterosaurs that belong to the Dsungaripteridae group are thought to have primarily if not exclusively fed upon shell fish, and adaptations for this diet can be clearly seen in Dsungaripterus itself. The tip of the snout is toothless and curves upwards. This would have been ideal for levering up shellfish that were stuck … Read more
In Depth Ischioceratops is a genus of small ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the late Cretaceous. Ischioceratops is a rare example of a ceratopsian dinosaur being named without any skull fossils. This has been possible in this case because the hip structure of Ischioceratops is quite unlike any other ceratopsian … Read more
In Depth Pendraig is a genus of coelophysoid theropod dinosaur that lived in the British Isles during the late Triassic. Further reading - Pendraig milnerae, a new small-sized coelophysoid theropod from the Late Triassic of Wales. - Royal Society Open Science. 8 (10): Article ID 210915. - Stephan N. F. Spiekman, Mart�n D. Ezcurra, Richard … Read more
In Depth Paraburnetia is a genus of biarmosuchian therapsid that lived in South Africa during the Late Permian. The name Paraburnetia means ‘near Burnetia’, a reference to the similarity of this genus to Burnetia. Further Reading - A new burnetiid (Therapsida: Biarmosuchia) from the Upper Permian of South Africa and its biogeographic implications. - Journal … Read more
In Depth First described in 2001, Nothronychus was the first genus of therizinosaurid dinosaur to be discovered in North America (the state of New Mexico in the USA), with other earlier notable discoveries such as Beipiaosaurus and Therizinosaurus being discovered in China and Mongolia. However the first fossil of Nothronychus called an ischium (the rear … Read more
In Depth Volgatitan is a genus of titanosaur that lived in Russia during the early Cretaceous period. Further Reading - The oldest titanosaurian sauropod of the Northern Hemisphere. - Biological Communications 63(3):145-162. - A. Averianov & V. Efimov - 2018.
In Depth Although the name Deinotherium translates to mean ‘Terrible beast’, this definition somewhat belies the true nature of Deinotherium as a prehistoric elephant. Compared to today’s living elephants however, Deinotherium is the type genus of the more distantly related group called the deinotheres. Deinotherium remains one of the largest elephants in the fossil record, … Read more
In Depth Neuquensaurus is easily one of the smallest of the known titanosaurs, with only genera such as Magyarosaurus being known to clearly be smaller. Neuquensaurus has had a fairly complicated taxonomic history with fossils of Neuquensaurus previously being described as belonging to both Titanosaurus and Saltasaurus before being renamed as Neuquensaurus. In addition to … Read more
In Depth Orodromeus was a small ornithopod dinosaur of the late Cretaceous that had boss-like growths on the jugals (cheek bones). Orodromeus has been considered to be similar to another small ornithopod named Oryctodromeus, which itself is considered to have been a burrowing dinosaur. It is still not known for certain if Orodromeus burrowed and … Read more