In Depth Liaoningotitan is a genus of titanisauriform sauropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new Titanosauriformes dinosaur from Jehol Biota of western Liaoning, China. - Global Geology. 37 (2): 327–333. - C.-F. Zhou, W.–H. Wu, T. Sekiya & Z.-M. Dong - 2018.
In Depth Sauroscaptor is a genus of burrowing dicynodont that lived in India during the late Permian. Further Reading - A new Taxon of Cistecephalid Dicynodont from the Upper Permian Kundaram Formation of India. - Papers in Palaeontology 1-16. - C. F. Kammerer, S. Bandyopadhyay & S. Ray - 2016.
In Depth Saturnalia is today considered to be a sauropodomorph, albeit a very primitive one at that. The fossil record concerning the evolution of dinosaurs is still very incomplete and quite possibly will never be known as a whole, but as soon as dinosaurs appeared in the Triassic period it seems that it was only … Read more
In Depth While Titanichthys appears to have been as large as the fearsome Dunkleosteus, it does not seem to have had the same apex predator lifestyle. Whereas Dunkleosteus had jaws that where incredibly sharp for biting through the armour of other bony placoderms, the jaws of Titanichthys were actually very blunt in comparison. A possible … Read more
In Depth Further Reading - A new phytosaur (Archosauriformes, Phytosauria) from the Lot’s Wife beds (Sonsela Member) within the Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic) of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (3): 573–586. - M. R. Stocker - 2012.
In Depth Elliotherium is a genus of cynodont that lived in South Africa during the late Triassic. Elliotherium is named after the Elliot formation where the holotype fossil was recovered from and combined with the word ‘therium’ which translates to English as ‘beast’. Further Reading - Elliotherium kersteni, a new tritheledontid from the lower Elliot … Read more
In Depth Giraffatitan was originally named as an African species of Brachiosaurus. First named in 1914 by Werner Janensch as Brachiosaurus brancai, subsequent study of the fossil material would reveal several morphological differences between B. brancai and the Brachiosaurus type species B. altithorax. This has led to the modern name of Giraffatitan, a play on … Read more
In Depth Tanytrachelos is a genus of tanystropheiid reptile (relative of Tanystropheus) that lived during the Late Triassic. There is speculation that Tanytrachelos may be synonymous with the genus Gwyneddosaurus, and usually this would mean Tanytrachelos would be renamed as Gwyneddosaurus since this genus was named before Tanytrachelos. However since Gwyneddosaurus is based upon very … Read more
In Depth Zhejiangopterus belongs to the Azhdarchidae group of pterosuars, the same group that includes the huge Quetzalcoatlus. With the large number of fossils of Zhejiangopterus discovered, it is one of the better represented of all the azhdarchids. Initially thought to have had a 5 meter wingspan, study of available fossil material has called for … Read more
In Depth Also known as the Zechstein shark, Wodnika appears to have been very much like a modern day bullshark. In life Wodnika was a small shark that would have swam in the Zechstein Sea that covered much of northern Europe, where Wodnika likely patrolled near the bottom looking for prey like crustaceans. When found … Read more