In Depth Jinyunpelta is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia around the early/late Cretaceous boundary. The presence of Jinyunpelta at that time suggests that it was among the first ankylosaurid dinosaur genera to have evolved a tail club. Further Reading - The most basal ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Albian-Cenomanian of China, with … Read more
In Depth Unfortunately like with so many other Australian dinosaurs, Atlascopcosaurus is based upon the description of very incomplete remains, in this case part of a jaw. This jaw was been compared to other dinosaur types which has yielded the conclusion that Atlascopcosaurus was probably a member of the Euornithopoda. Also a very rough estimate … Read more
In Depth Euskelosaurus may have been quite specialised for a sauropodomorph dinosaur since the shaft of the femur is physically twisted. This led in 1979 to a palaeontologist by the name of Heerden to suggest that Euskelosaurus might have been bow legged instead of just growing straight down like similar sauropodomorphs. The twisting of the … Read more
In Depth Wuerhosaurus is currently the latest surviving known member of the stegosaur group. In being so, the temporal range of these kinds of dinosaurs has been significantly extended up to the middle Cretaceous, forty-five million years after their Jurassic heyday. Unfortunately Wuerhosaurus is only represented by partial remains, making accurate reconstruction of this stegosaurid … Read more
In Depth The problem with most dinosaur remains from the Cambridge Greensand is that they are incomplete representations of a living animal, and collections of fossils can often be the mixed up remains of more than one genus. In the past the genus of Anoplosaurus has been accused of being partially composed of ornithopod dinosaur … Read more
In Depth Dongbeititan is a genus of macronarian sauropod that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. As a macrocnarian, Dongbeititan would have been similar in form to genera such as Lusotitan, Janenshcia and Daanosaurus. Further Reading - Dongbeititan dongi, the first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning Province, China. … Read more
In Depth An interesting fact about Ornitholestes is that since it was first discovered in July of 1900, it was the first theropod dinosaur to be discovered in the twentieth century. Since this time, Ornitholestes has been regularly depicted in books, art and even dinosaur documentaries such as the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs. However, … Read more
In Depth At around three meters long, Secernosaurus was very small for a hadrosaur, though its claim to fame is not size, but the fact that it was the first hadrosaur known to come from South America. In addition Secernosaurus seems to represent a saurolophine hadrosaurid similar to Kritosaurus, and saurolophines are best documented … Read more
In Depth Because this genus of possible titanosaur is only based upon teeth, Neosodon is usually treated as a highly dubious genus. First considered to have been a theropod similar to Megalosaurus, then a synonym to Iguanodon, Neosodon was later considered to be a sauropod, perhaps a brachiosaurid (similar to Brachiosaurus). The 2006 description of … Read more
In Depth Aardonyx is a very special sauropodomorph as it represents the transitional stage between bipedal ancestors and quadrupedal descendants. This change is most evident when examining the legs, which show adaptations for a slower, yet more powerful method of walking. These changes combined with an increasingly quadrupedal method of weight bearing would allow the … Read more