In Depth Protocaptorhinus was one of the earlier genera of captorhinid reptiles to appear, and this is reflected in the genus name which translates as ‘first Captorhinus’, a comparison to the type genus of the Captorhinidae, Captorhinus. Further Reading - Romeriid Reptiles from the Lower Permian. - Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 144(5):353-407. … Read more
In Depth Cargninia is a genus of lepidosaur that lived in South America during the late Triassic. Further Reading - La fauna local de Faxinal do Soturno, Tri�sico Tard�o de Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Paleontolog�a 13(3):233-246. - J. F. Bonaparte, C. L. Schultz, M. B. Soares & A. G. Martinelli - … Read more
In Depth Aside from being one of the best preserved Jurassic era sauropods from Africa, the features that really made people sit up and pay attention about Spinophorosaurus are the spiked osteoderms. Only a few of these were found, but the researchers involved with piecing Spinophorosaurus back together have come to the conclusion that these … Read more
In Depth Named from a partial braincase, Vahiny is the second genus of titanosaurid dinosaur to be discovered in the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar, with the first being Rapetosaurus. The titanosaur Rapetosaurus has attained almost legendary status since it was named due to the fact that it is the most complete titanosaur discovered and represented … Read more
In Depth Perijasaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Jurassic. Further reading - A sauropod from the Lower Jurassic La Quinta Formation (Dept. Cesar, Colombia) and the initial diversification of eusauropods at low latitudes. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. - Aldo F. Rinc�n, Daniel A. Raad P�jaro, Harold … Read more
In Depth Papiliovenator is a genus of troodontid dinosaur that lived in East Asia during the late Cretaceous. Further reading - A New Troodontid from the Upper Cretaceous Gobi Basin of Inner Mongolia, China. - Cretaceous Research. - RuiPei, Yuying Qin, Aishu Wen, Qi Zhao, Zhe Wang ,Zhanmin Liu, Weilesi Guo ,Po Liu, Weiming Ye, … Read more
In Depth Gracilisuchus is a very Ancient, and very small relative of the crocodiles that we know today. Gracilisuchus however seems to have been mostly terrestrial walking about on four legs, but also having the ability to rear up and walk on just the two rear legs. The small size and gracile (hence the name) … Read more
In Depth A cartilaginous fish and therefore relative of sharks and rays, Deltoptychius is often seen as an early rat tail. For a modern analogy, Deltoptychius would be a more primitive version of a modern Chimaera monstrosa. These kinds of fish are usually deep water species that swim around in virtual darkness as very little … Read more
In Depth It’s kind of obvious that the team behind the naming of the pterosaur Ikrandraco are fans of the 2009 film Avatar. The Ikran part of the name is a reference to the Ikran of the film, flying dragon-like creatures that are ridden by the Na’vi. The inspiration for this came from the large … Read more
In Depth Known from the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Djupedalia seems to have been a medium sized cryptoclided plesiosaur of the late Jurassic. The partial fossil remains of Djupedalia indicate that that the holotype was a juvenile at the time of death and that it was very similar to genera such as Muraenosaurus and … Read more