In Depth With a weight estimate of 0.5-0.75 kilos, Fruitadens is by far one of the smallest known dinosaurs. Recovered specimens are thought to represent juveniles and sub adults that are almost fully grown. In appearance Fruitadens is considered to have been similar to Heterodontosaurus, although it may have been closer to Echinodon and Tianyulong … Read more
In Depth After Stegosaurus itself, Kentrosaurus is easily the best known of the stegosaurs. Many herbivores were known to have herded, and support for this in Kentrosaurus comes from the massive collection of bones from the Tendaguru beds. Like other Stegosaurs, Kentrosaurus was considered to be a low browser, although it’s considered possible for Kentrosaurus … Read more
In Depth Since the closing decades of the twentieth century literally thousands of fossil bones of hadrosaurid dinosaurs have been found in Alaska. Initially considered to be lambeosaurines (the type with bony head crests), there were later determined to be saurolophines, specifically similar to Edmontosaurus. Most of these remains however have come from juveniles which … Read more
In Depth Yurgovuchia was a small dromaeosaurine theropod that is often described as being ‘coyote sized’. Although Yurgovuchia is only known from very incomplete remains, mapping the known bones to the proportions of related but better preserved dromaeosaurs has yielded a rough estimate of around two and a half meters, though much of this figure … Read more
In Depth Navajoceratops is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. At the time of the description Navajoceratops is known only from a partial skull bones that a reveal a little of the shape of the neck frill. These suggest that Navajoceratops was a chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur. Further … Read more
In Depth Although pieced together and described from very incomplete skull material, Dracovenator has been identified as being similar to Dilophosaurus. With this in mind the 2006 description of Dracovenator saw it classified as a dilphosaurid and related to Dilophosaurus from North America, and Zupaysaurus from South America, though not all palaeontologists are convinced about … Read more
In Depth At first glance you might be forgiven for thinking that Miragaia is some kind of hybrid between a stegosaur and a sauropod. Well in actuality Miragaia is a stegosaur, although the long neck and long forelimbs make it quite different from classic examples such as Stegosaurus and Kentrosaurus. The most likely cause for … Read more
Classification history and complications When Tarbosaurus fossils were first discovered many of them were actually assigned as new species to the existing tyrannosauroid genera Tyrannosaurus (T. bataar) and Gorgosaurus (G. lancinator & G. novojilovi), as well as the new genus and species, Tarbosaurus efremovi. This classification continued until 1965 when Anatoly Konstantinovich Rozhdestvensky realised that … Read more
In Depth The key thing about Judiceratops is that at the time of its description it appears to be the oldest known chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur. Unfortunately only an incomplete skull is known for the genus, so figures on size and a confirmed arrangement of horns and neck frill are a little tricky to establish. Judiceratops … Read more
In Depth With the exception of Triceratops, Styracosaurus is the ceratopsian dinosaur that most people are familiar with. In fact it could even be argued that Styracosaurus has had even greater exposure in popular media such as films, books and games. This popularity is all down to the very distinctive arrangement of horns that extend … Read more