In Depth Although known from only a single partial skull, Nemegtosaurus is quite a find as titanosaurid dinosaurs are often only known from post cranial remains. However another titanosaurid called Opisthocoelicaudia is also known from the same Formation as Nemegtosaurus, and this one is only known from post cranial remains. This has led some to … Read more
In Depth Mansourasaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that lived in North Africa during the late Cretaceous. The discovery of Mansourasaurus was significant in itself because North African fossil beds often do not yield remains of larger dinosaurs like sauropods. This is partly because the harsh arid conditions of North Africa will often … Read more
In Depth Hypacrosaurus means ‘near the highest lizard’, and in this context the ‘lizard’ was actually the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs in the ecosystems of late Cretaceous North America, but only about a third larger than Hypacrosaurus in the largest individuals (twelve meters for large individual Tyrannosaurus compared to nine meters for … Read more
In Depth First discovered in 1998 when a road construction uncovered the remains, it took a team of palaeontologists all the way to 2012 to publish a description about this dinosaur. Yueosaurus is regarded as being a basal ornithopod dinosaur, the fifth known from Asia and the most Southern at the time of its discovery. … Read more
In Depth The lightly built skull of Abrosaurus (which is the inspiration for the name ‘delicate lizard’) clearly indicates that it was a macronarian sauropod, similar to genera such as Brachiosaurus and Camarasaurus. Camarasaurus in particular has been considered to be a very close relative of Abrosaurus because they both seem to represent basal (primitive) … Read more
In Depth The first Masiakasurus remains were described in 2001, and a second set of remains were recovered in 2011. This has allowed some of the original gaps including the premaxilla to be included with the overall morphology. The most striking feature of Masiakasaurus is the way the front teeth point forward and out of … Read more
In Depth With most of the skeleton known and represented by several individuals, Utahceratops is one of the better known ceratopsian dinosaurs, which often are named only from partial skulls. At about five meters long Utahceratops was roughly mid-sized for a quadrupedal ceratopsian, dinosaur, but the skull seems to be oversized with a length of … Read more
In Depth Protohadros is a genus of medium to large ornithopod dinosaur that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. Protohadros means ‘first hadrosaur)’, and reflects the idea at the time of its description that the genus may represent the earliest true hadrosaur in North America. However, since Protohadros has been named, several new … Read more
In Depth Paranthodon remains were first described when they were incorrectly included with the remains of a parieasaur named Anthodon. The inclusion of these remains also gave the incorrect identification for Anthodon as a dinosaur instead of a parieasaur until 1912 when Robert Broom separated an upper jaw from the genus. While Broom correctly identified … Read more
In Depth Protarchaeopteryx was so named because of a superficial similarity to the genus Archaeopteryx. However today, Protarchaeopteryx is seen as a very primitive member of the Oviraptosauria, and one that bears a strong resemblance to the genus Incisivosaurus. Protarchaeopteryx was a small dinosaur, and one that probably specialised in hunting small animals like lizards … Read more