In Depth Mantellisaurus was originally described as a species of Iguanodon, I. atherfieldensis, but in 2007 Gregory S. Paul renamed the species as new genus. Paul chose the name Mantellisaurus in honour of Gideon Mantell, the man who discovered and named Iguanodon. Mantellisaurus was capable of movement in either a quadrupedal or bipedal posture, and … Read more
In Depth Irritator is proof that palaeontologists do have a sense of humour even if it is a dry one. The holotype specimen of Irritator was a skull that had been artificially elongated by illegal fossil collectors in the hope of increasing its monetary value (plainly speaking, to get more money for the fossil). Before … Read more
In Depth Although officially named in 2003, the first confirmed remains of Rajasaurus were found in between 1982 and 1984 by Suresh Srivastava. However there is an outside chance that the first remains may have actually been discovered way back in 1923 with the naming of Lametasaurus. Lametasaurus though is now considered to ba a … Read more
In Depth Not a lot has been recovered for this dinosaur, but what we do have for Chaoyangsaurus allows us to identify this as a small ceratopsian dinosaur, What is really significant about this is that Chaoyangsaurus lived during the late Jurassic, which indicates to us that the ceratopsian dinosaurs that would be among the … Read more
In Depth When it comes to popularity Triceratops is only eclipsed by Tyrannosaurus, and even then there are a considerable portion of people who actually prefer Triceratops over the aforementioned apex predator. Yet despite its frequent depiction from toys to dinosaur books, films and other media, there is still a lot of controversy and misconception … Read more
In Depth The discovery of Jeholosaurus raised some eyebrows as even though it is an ornithiscian dinosaur with distinctively herbivorous teeth towards the back of its mouth, the frontal teeth look that those of a carnivore. This has brought forth the hypothesis that Jeholosaurus was an omnivore, either hunting smaller animals or scavenging carrion to … Read more
In Depth Liubangosaurus is a genus off sauropod dinosaur that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. Not much is known about this dinosaur at the time of writing because it is only known by a few vertebrae. Further Reading - A new eusauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Guangxi Province, southern China. - … Read more
In Depth Abelisaur theropods ranged across much of the southern continents during the late Cretaceous and India certainly seems to have had its share of them. However when Indosaurus was fist named by Matley and von Huene in 1933, the abelisaurs were still an unknown group of theropods, which is why they initially described Indosaurus … Read more
In Depth Lusitanosaurus is widely regarded as a dubious genus because of the lack of fossils that were used to describe it. The maxilla in question was originally thought to be from a stegosaur, but today it is considered to be from an ankylosaurian. Beyond this it is hard to infer anything further other than … Read more
In Depth Banji is a genus of small oviraptorid dinosaur that lived in China During the late Cretaceous. The name Banji translates as (striped crest), and is a reference to the striations that run vertically along the crest. Another feature seen in the holotype skull is that the nasal opening is by proportion unusually large … Read more