In Depth Serendipaceratops is often regarded as a dubious dinosaur genus, but if it is not, then it is actually the first ceratopsian dinosaur to be discovered as living in Australia. The story begins in 1993 when during the Dinosaur Cove Project, an isolated almost complete ulna bone (the same as one of the ones … Read more
In Depth Since its creation Halticosaurus has had a lot of fossil remains attributed to it but most of these have been reassigned to other genera. Best known of these is the creation of a new species called H. liliensterni which ended up being raised as the genus Liliensternus in 1984. Other theropod dinosaur remains … Read more
In Depth Dvellecanus is a genus of lepospondyl amphibian that lived in North America during the Permian. Further Reading - Micro-CT Study of Rhynchonkos stovalli (Lepospondyli, Recumbirostra), with Description of Two New Genera. - PLoS ONE 10 (6). - M. Szostakiwskyj, J. D. Pardo & J. S. Anderson - 2015.
In Depth Phyllodon is usually credited as a dubious dinosaur genus as at the time of writing only the teeth and lower jaws of this genus are known, making the attribution of new fossils difficult at best. Phyllodon however has been noted as being similar to the genera Nanosaurus. Further Reading - Teeth of ornithischian … Read more
In Depth At the time of its description, Ningyuansaurus is considered to be one of the earliest known oviraptosaurs to appear on the Mesozoic landscape. So primitive is Ningyuansaurus, that the skull it proportionately longer than later oviraptosaurs, and still contains teeth, ten in the upper jaw (four premaxilla, six maxilla), and at least fourteen … Read more
In Depth Most study about Tarjadia so far has been concerning the osteoderms (sometimes called scutes), pieces of bone that resided within the skin. The osteoderms of Tarjadia are very distinctive in that they have heavy pitting on their surface. These osteoderms likely afforded Tarjadia a fair amount of protection from other predators of the … Read more
In Depth Bullacephalus is a genus of biarmosuchian therapsid, and at the time of the genus description is the earliest known appearance of a burnetiid. Bullacephalus is named from a boss-like projection of bone on the skull. Further Reading - A new burnetiamorph (Therapsida: Biarmosuchia) from the lower Beaufort Group of South Africa. - B. … Read more
In Depth Remigiomontanus is a genus of edaphosaurid pelycosaur that lived in Europe during the late Carboniferous. As an edaphosaurid, Remigiomontanus would have had a sail on its back. Further reading - Edaphosauridae (Synapsida, Eupelycosauria) from Europe and their relationship to North American representatives. - Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 1-29. - F. Spindler, S. Voigt & J. … Read more
In Depth The type fossils of Ostromia were originally identified as belongs to a pterosaur and then eventually a species of Archaeopteryx before finally being re-identified as a distinct genus and a kind of anchiornithine dinosaur. Ostromia would have likely been a small predator, possibly more of a hunter of insects. Further Reading - Re-evaluation … Read more
In Depth A relative of such genera as Aelurodon and Borophagus, Tomarctus is another one of the hyena-like ‘bone crushing’ dogs of the Miocene. This description comes from the attachments for powerful jaw closing muscles and short muzzle which means that when borophagine canids like Tomarctus bit on something, it was closer to the point … Read more