In Depth Not a lot is known about Anarosaurus due to the very fragmentary remains that are all we currently have. What can be ascertained from the remains however is that Anarosaurus was a pachypleurosaur, small reptiles that in appearance looked somewhere between terrestrial lizards and fully aquatic plesiosaurs. With this in mind Anarosaurus would … Read more
In Depth Invictokoala is a genus of koala that lived in Australia, for most of the latter half of the Pleistocene. Further Reading - Invictokoala monticola gen. et sp. nov. (Phascolarctidae, Marsupialia), a Pleistocene plesiomorphic koala holdover from Oligocene ancestors. - Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 9(2):327-335. - G. J. Price & S. A. Hocknull - … Read more
In Depth Belodon is an often quoted yet surprisingly obscure genus of phytosaurs. The phytosaurs were physically and presumably ecologically similar to crocodiles, and Belodon seems to have grown to a size approaching smaller crocodiles that we know today. However, not all are convinced about the validity of Belodon, with some palaeontologists regarding it as … Read more
In Depth Nambashag is a genus of cormorant that lived in Australia during the Oligocene/Miocene. Further Reading - Descriptions and phylogenetic relationships of a new genus and two new species of Oligo-Miocene cormorants (Aves: Phalacrocoracidae) from Australia. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (1): 277–314. - Trevor H. Worthy - 2011.
In Depth Like with its probable relative Hupehsuchus, Nanchangosaurus looked like an ichthyosaur crossed with an archosaur. For this reason Nanchangosaurus is regarded as being analogous to an ichthyosaur though at best only distantly related to them, even though it is sometimes listed as one. Unfortunately we can only guess to this exact relationship since … Read more
In Depth With an estimated length of around three meters long Anserimimus was towards the smaller end of the scale in terms of ornithomimosaur size. Other related dinosaurs from the same area such as Gallimius would have been at least double this size, while the very incomplete Deinocheirus would have been even larger than this. … Read more
In Depth Alienochelys is a genus or turtle that lived during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A strange new chelonioid turtle from the latest Cretaceous phosphates of Morocco. - Comptes Rendus Palevol 13(2):87-95. - F. de Lapparent de Broin, N. Bardet, M. Amaghzaz & S. Meslouh - 2014.
In Depth Limenavis is a genus of bird that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. Limenavis means ‘threshold bird’ and this is a reference as to how this genus came pretty much as close as it could to crossing the threshold of being a modern bird, without actually being one. Further Reading – … Read more
In Depth Atsinganosaurus is named from the Ancient Greek word atsinganos which means ‘gypsy’, and is a reference to a proposed east to west migration for these dinosaurs. The known remains of Atsinganosaurus are fragmentary but in otherwise a good state of preservation. Unfortunately the overall lack of them means that it is hard to … Read more
In Depth Initially considered to be a Southern population of Massospondylus, Adeopapposaurus was established as an independent genus in 2009. Adeopapposaurus is an unusual sauropodomorph since it appears to have had a keratinous beak to its mouth. If correct, then this may have been a feeding specialisation for snipping off foliage from plants. Further Reading … Read more