In Depth With only the end of the tail missing, Aucasaurus has the most complete single abelisaurid skeleton currently known. This has allowed for more accurate general features which are thought to be common to the group such as the famously underdeveloped arms that are even more puny than those that appear upon Tyrannosaurus, to … Read more
In Depth The holotype fossils of Altirhinus were originally classified as a species of Iguanodon, I. orientalis back in 1952. However Iguanodon has long suffered from the wastebasket taxon effect where remains of superficially similar dinosaurs have been attributed to the genus, in part due to its long history and seemingly wide distribution of fossils … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Xinjiangovenator were once attributed to the genus Phaedrolosaurus, however Phaedrolosaurus was originally described from a single tooth with additional lower limb bones referred to the genus upon the basis that they were found near the tooth within the same fossil bearing formation. In 2005 Rauhut and Xu separated these remains from … Read more
In Depth At the time of its description Haplocheirus was the oldest known alvarezsaur by an impressive sixty-three million years before the previous record holder. This places Haplocheirus firmly within the Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic revealing that the alvarezsaurs began at least this far back rather than the early Cretaceous period as previously thought. … Read more
In Depth Epachthosaurus is a genus of basal titanosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. This is significant because much more advanced titanosaurs were living in South America at this time, which in itself suggests that Epachthosaurus was a late surviving form. One individual of Epachthosaurus (UNPSJB-PV 920) is represented by an … Read more
In Depth Adelolophus is a genus of hadrosaur that lived in the USA during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - New hadrosaurid (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) specimens from the lower-middle Campanian Wahweap Formation of southern Utah. Hadrosaurs 156-173. - T. A. Gates, Z. Jinnah, C. Levitt & M. A. Getty - 2014.
In Depth Fukuititan is the first ever sauropod dinosaur known to have lived in what is now Japan. The holotype individual of Fukuititan seems to have been fairly small in terms of overall sauropod sizes, and may be a reflection of living upon a smaller land mass. Based upon similarity between the caudal (tail) vertebrae, … Read more
In Depth Gobiraptor is a genus of oviraptorid dinosaur that lived in Mongolia towards the end of the Late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new baby oviraptorid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. - PLOS ONE. 14 (2). - Sungjin Lee, Yuong-Nam Lee, Anusuya Chinsamy, Junchang L�, Rinchen Barsbold & … Read more
In Depth Laplatasaurus was initially named in 1927 by the famous palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, however a full description was not published until 1929, which is why Laplatasaurus is credited as being named in 1929. Laplatasaurus has a somewhat confusing relationship with the titanosaurid Titanosaurus. One former species of Titanosaurus, T. madagascariensis was in 1933 … Read more
In Depth The material of Vagaceratops was first removed from its block in 2001 when palaontologists identified it as a species of Chasmosaurus, C. irvinensis. Further study in 2010 however revealed it to be different enough to give it its own genus. Normal procedure for this occurrence is to take the specific species name of … Read more