In Depth With its distinctive back plates, Stegosaurus is one of the best represented dinosaurs in popular culture today. Initially thought to just live in the USA, a partial skeleton discovered in 2006 places Stegosaurus in Portugal. This has significantly increased the known range of this animal and further reinforced the theory that North America … Read more
In Depth The elongated frill of Chasmosaurus had two large fenestra in the middle which would have had a skin covering in life giving the appearance of a ‘solid’ frill. As a display device the frill may have been brightly coloured with an elaborate display. Also since the frill in these parts was soft tissue, … Read more
In Depth Pitekunsaurus was a titanosaurian dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. At the time of writing Pitekunsaurus is usually considered to be an aeolosaurine titanosaur, and as such a relative of such genera as Aeolosaurus, Panamericansaurus and Gondwanatitan. The type species name P. macayai is in honour of Luis Macaya … Read more
In Depth Lurdusaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in North Africa during the Early Cretaceous, and one that helped reveal that some ornithopods at least were growing to large sizes. Lurdusaurus is noted for being approximately nine meters long featuring a neck that is longer than most other ornithopods of its kind … Read more
In Depth Phuwiangosaurus was first named as a titanosaurid dinosaur in 1994, and was the first named sauropod dinosaur known to have come from Thailand. The name Phuwiangosaurus translates as ‘Phu Wiang lizard’ and is a reference to the district of Phu Wiang District of Thailand. The species name P. sirindhornae was in honour of … Read more
In Depth Although not very well known, Tianyuraptor is important to many palaeontologists because it is often regarded as a transitional form that links northern and southern genera of dromaeosaurids. Tianyuraptor is noted for having a smaller than usual furcula and arms that are proportionately much smaller than those of other dromaeosaurid genera. Overall, Tianyuraptor … Read more
In Depth Kryptops is a little known genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in North Africa during the Early Cretaceous. At the time of the original description in 2008, Kryptops was considered to be the most primitive known abelisaurid. Kryptops was described from a partial maxilla (main and posterior tooth bearing bone in the … Read more
In Depth Bagualosaurus is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Triassic. Bagualosaurus seems to have been somewhat transitional in form in that the skull and tooth arrangement are like those of later sauropodomorph dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus and Efraasia, yet the main body of Bagualosaurus is more theropod-like, … Read more
In Depth Latirhinus should not be confused with Altirhinus, as not only do they have similar sounding names (only difference being the position of the ’l’ and ’a’ at the start), both were hadrosaurs and both were named after the enlarged bony protuberances on their snouts. Latirhinus was a form of saurolophine hadrosaur, a type … Read more
In Depth Fossils of Australodocus were first recovered in 1909 by the famous German palaeontologist Werner Janensch, however they were not described until 2007. Further to this, not all of the original specimens could be studied since many of them were destroyed in World War 2. Out of the surviving bones, some of the vertebrae … Read more