In Depth To date Ekrixinatosaurus is without doubt one of the largest abelisaurid theropods that we currently know about, and even at the lower estimate of ten meters long, Ekrixinatosaurus was still bigger than the far more famous Carnotaurus which at the time of writing seems to have had a maximum size of nine meters … Read more
In Depth Toipahautea is a genus of baleen whale that lived in waters around new Zealand during the Oligocene. Further Reading - A new archaic baleen whale Toipahautea waitaki (early Late Oligocene, New Zealand) and the origins of crown Mysticeti. - Royal Society Open Science 5(4):172453. - C.-H. Tsai & R. E. Fordyce - 2018.
In Depth When first described Kemkemia was originally thought to be a theropod dinosaur, and one with unusual vertebrae. However, three years after the description of Kemkemia, a new paper re-identified the holotype specimen of Kemkemia as actually being from a crocodile. So far, Kemkemia is only known from a single tail vertebra, which makes … Read more
In Depth Perhaps the easiest way to describe Palaeosaniwa is as a late Cretaceous monitor lizard. Indeed the name Palaeosaniwa actually means ‘ancient Saniwa’, a reference to the genus Saniwa which was a kind of monitor lizard that lived in North America later during the Eocene. The teeth of Palaeosaniwa are flattened like blades with … Read more
In Depth Although still often regarded as a valid genus, Indosuchus is considered by some to be a nomen dubium. This is because in 1933 Charles Matley and Friedrich von Huene not only named Indosuchus, but also Indosaurus and Compsosuchus, also from partial remains. Many palaeontologists consider these three genera to possibly be the same … Read more
In Depth As a hyaenodontid creodont, Sinopa is considered to be a relative to the much more famous Hyaenodon. Like with this genus, the current known distribution of Sinopa fossils suggest that it had a distribution stretching from North Africa to North America, though the vast majority of Sinopa fossils are so far known in … Read more
In Depth Cymatosaurus is usually seen to be a member of the Pistosauridea. This group of marine reptiles were the forerunners of the plesiosaurs which seem to have evolved from later more advanced pistosauroid forms. Other members of this group include Augustasaurus and Pistosaurus, but Cymatosaurus probably also shared the ocean with placodonts like Placodus, … Read more
In Depth After the release of its description, Kaprosuchus, or ‘Boar Croc’ as it is more often called, quickly captured the public’s imagination and entered popular culture soon after. The name comes from the three sets of teeth that look like the tusks on a wild boar. These pairs of teeth are divided two pairs … Read more
In Depth Many prehistoric sharks look just plain weird, and Bandringa is certainly no exception. The immediate stand out feature of this shark is the long spoonbill shaped snout that accounts for a good portion of the sharks total length. Some fish we know today do have such a snout, and they use it for … Read more
In Depth Buitreraptor was small, even for a dromaeosaurid dinosaur. Buitreraptor however is markedly different to most other currently known dromaeosaurid genera, especially by its skull. The jaws of Buitreraptor are long and slender, both advantages that could theoretically help in seizing prey like small lizards and mammals that might be hiding amongst rocks. The … Read more