In Depth        Anthracosuchus is a genus of dryosaurid crocodile that lived in Colombia approximately sixty million years ago.†‬Unusually for a dryosaurid crocodile,†‬Anthracosuchus had a particularly broad and short blunt snout,†‬very difference to the†‬more slender snouts that are more commonly seen in related genera.†‬A shorter and broader snout indicates that Anthracosuchus … Read more
In Depth        Alamitornis was a late Cretaceous era bird that seemed to have been quite gracile in form.†‬In the†‬2009†‬description it was also considered to possibly be related to Patagopteryx.†‬Alamitornis would have likely shared the same habitats with dinosaurs such as the sauropod Aeolosaurus and the hadrosaur Secernosaurus. Further Reading -†‬Fossil … Read more
In Depth        The original bones of Mochlodon were first discovered in†‬1859,†‬but were not formerly identified until†‬1870.†‬When named by Emanuel Bunzel,†‬the remains were identified as those of a new species of Iguanodon.†‬However,†‬by this time Iguanodon was being treated as a†‘‬wastebasket taxon‒ ‬for any remains that had a superficial … Read more
In Depth        Talos is so far only known from a partial post cranial skeleton that is mostly represented by the rear limbs.†‬However when these remains are scaled to the same proportions as other more complete troodontid genera,†‬a rough†‬estimate of around two meters in length can be attained for the animal.†‬Like other … Read more
In Depth        Protypotherium might have looked like a long legged rabbit,†‬but it was actually a notoungulate,†‬a group of mammals unrelated to rabbits.†‬The biggest confusion about Protypotherium is regarding its diet since it possesses all forty-four mammalian teeth,†‬yet no real specialisation towards a specific diet.†‬While Protypotherium is usually interpreted as being … Read more
In Depth        When researching the evolution of primates,†‬Pliopithecus is one of the most common names you will come across.†‬Much of this comes from early ideas about how Pliopithecus might be an ancestor to gibbons today,†‬but the likelihood of this is now in doubt.†‬While Pliopithecus was certainly gibbon like,†‬these similarities are … Read more
In Depth        Confractosuchus is a genus of crocodile that lived in Australia around the boundary of the Early and Late Cretaceous periods.†‬Not to be unkind,†‬but Confractosuchus was a fairly typical crocodile looking much like you would expect a crocodile to look like.†‬But one thing that made the discovery of Confractosuchus stand out … Read more
In Depth        Originally named as a species of Icthyosaurus by Wagner in†‬1853,†‬Aegirosaurus was raised as a distinct genus by Bardet†& ‬Fernandez some one hundred and forty-seven years later.†‬This is in part down to the wastebasket taxon effect,†‬a common practice in the nineteenth century that saw similar prehistoric animals grouped together … Read more
In Depth        Being one of the smallest members of the Phorusrhacidae,†‬Psilopterus was no way near the scale of the larger phorusrhacids like Brontornis.†‬However the exact size of Psilopterus is something that is hard to be certain about as not only do estimates depend upon the specific species,†‬but there is an outside chance … Read more
In Depth        Koskinonodon was originally named as Buettneria back in†‬1922,†‬however it was later realised that Buettneria had already been used to name a genus of katydid†‬(bush cricketâ€).†‬In addition to this a species of Metoposaurus,†‬M.†‬bakeri was moved to create a new species of†‬Koskinonodon,†‬K.†‬bakeri,†‬in†‬1931.†‬Additionally another … Read more