In Depth Waharoa is a genus of whale known to have lived in the waters around new Zealand during the Oligocene. Further Reading - Anatomy, feeding ecology, and ontogeny of a transitional baleen whale: a new genus and species of Eomysticetidae (Mammalia: Cetacea) from the Oligocene of New Zealand. - PeerJ 3:e1129. - R. W. … Read more
In Depth Lukousaurus is a little known reptile that is probably a theropod dinosaur, possibly of the Ceratosauria. The overall lack of fossil remains for the genus however makes it very difficult to be certain about exactly what kind of creature Lukousaurus was. Further Reading – Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils. – Bulletin … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Kaatedocus were first recovered in 1934 and subsequently assigned to the genus Barosaurus. Later study of the fossils revealed them to actually represent a distinct genus of diplodocid sauropod. Further Reading - The skull and neck of a new flagellicaudatan sauropod from the Morrison Formation and its implication for the evolution … Read more
In Depth One of the earliest known ankylosaurs, Shamosaurus is regarded as being very similar to Gobisaurus, however there is enough fine detail differences in the skulls of the two genera that palaeontologists are confident in assigning these two ankylosaurs as separate genera. Unfortunately there are not yet enough remains to confidently estimate the size … Read more
In Depth Nanogomphodon is a genus of cynodont that lived in Germany during the Mid Triassic. Nanogomphodon is also a tooth taxon on the basis that the only known fossils of the genus are teeth. Further Reading - A traversodont cynodont from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of Baden-W�rttemberg (Germany). - Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 80(2):124-129. - J. … Read more
In Depth Oncorhynchus rastrosus is a prehistoric species of salmon and one known to have grown to very large sizes. Oncorhynchus rastrosus is more commonly known as the sabre-toothed salmon, a name the species got from a pair of greatly enlarged teeth that grew down from the upper jaw of males, and may have been … Read more
In Depth The exact classification of Hauffiosaurus can vary depending upon the source, though most researchers concede that it is almost certainly a pliosaur. Further to this, specimens of the genus are superficially similar to the rhomaleosaurid pliosaurs. In fact, one former species of Macroplata, one of the best known rhomaleosaurids has been re-assigned to … Read more
In Depth Mammuthus columbi is better known as the Columbian mammoth, although it is not actually named after the country Colombia that is in South America, but after the province of British Columbia in Canada. The Columbian mammoth appears to have been one of the most common mammoths roaming North America during the Pleistocene, and is … Read more
In Depth Originally described as a nothosaur, Corosaurus is now identified as a pistosaurid, a kind of sauropterygian reptile that is related to but separate to the true nothosaurs. The pistosauroids are established around the type genus pistosaurus, and it may have been these kinds of marine reptiles that were actually ancestral to the plesiosaurs … Read more
In Depth Mesophryne is a genus of frog that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - Mesozoic anurans from Liaoning Province, China, and phylogenetic relationships of archaeobatrachian anuran clades. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21 (3): 460–476. - Ke-Qin Gao & Yuan Wang - 2001.