In Depth Medusaceratops acquired its name from the way that the upper horns on the frill curve downwards, which gave the vague of impression of the snakes that rise out of the head of Medusa in Greek mythology. Medusaceratops was initially described as a chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur, the kind with a very large neck frill … Read more
In Depth Tatisaurus is one of those dinosaurs that has a lot of people forming lots of different opinions about what exactly it is. The person who first described the type fossil, D. J. Simmons first proposed that it belonged to a heterodontosaurid dinosaur and then later to a dinosaur similar to Scelidosaurus, a Thyreophoran … Read more
In Depth Wulong is a genus of microraptorine dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. The holotype individual of Wulong is of a juvenile, so a full adult size for this dinosaur is unknown at the time of writing. Other microraptorine dinosaurs however are usually smaller than other dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, and like … Read more
In Depth Another Asian tyrannosaur that was named early in 2016, Timurlengia has been named from isolated fossil remains cantered around a braincase that was first discovered in 2004. The braincase lay in storage at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences until 2014 when Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist noted for his work … Read more
In Depth The fossil remains of Becklespinax first began their taxonomic life as a second species of Altispinax called A. altipinax. However Altispinax was previously only described from teeth and there was no firm proof that the second species remains of three vertebrae actually belonged to the type specimen teeth. Later Gregory S. Paul, noting … Read more
In Depth South America is known as the cradle of giant dinosaurs, including other massive sauropods such as Argentinosaurus. Futalognkosaurus however has more skeletal material including the vertebrae (cervical and dorsal), sacrum, ilia, right pubis and ischium and ribs. Unfortunately the skull, tail and legs are unknown. Despite the lack of this material, Futalognkosaurus still … Read more
In Depth Discovered by Reverend William D. Fox in 1865, Polacanthus has been frustratingly ill preserved with only the hind quarters and parts of armour well preserved. The skull is also unknown, and for this reason modern reconstructions are based upon comparisons with other similar dinosaurs like Gastonia. What can be ascertained is that Polacanthus … Read more
In Depth Guemesia is a genus of abelisaurid dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. At the time of writing Guemesia is known only from a braincase, which makes physical details beyond generic abelisaurid traits hard to determine. The size of the braincase however suggests that Guemesia may have actually been quite … Read more
Fossil Map Interactive fossil Map of 65+ Fossil Records of Diplodocus Dinosaur, along with chronological bar chart of fossil discoveries. The discovery, naming and reconstruction of Diplodocus Two factors have helped make Diplodocus famous all over the world. The first is that for a long time Diplodocus was thought to be the largest (at … Read more
In Depth Like with Liaoningosaurus, Zhongyuansaurus was first described as a nodosaurid, but later identified as an ankylosaurid. Further study has identified Zhongyuansaurus as the most basal (primitive) ankylosaurine, the group of ankylosaurs that contains the more advance forms that began to appear as the Cretaceous progressed. So basal in fact was Zhongyuansaurus, that it … Read more