In Depth Described as a compsognathid dinosaur in 2016, the holotype Beipiaognathus has since been accused of being a fake. The theory is that the holotype is actually parts of many different creatures that an unscrupulous fossil dealer has stuck together in order to sell the fossil for more money. Unfortunately this is an often … Read more
In Depth Europasaurus was a macronarian sauropod which means it was similar in form to such dinosaurs as Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus. However Europasaurus itself was much smaller than either of these two genera, in fact it is one of the smallest dinosaurs of its kind. The small size of Europasaurus has been interpreted as a … Read more
In Depth Achelousaurus may represent something of a transition as even though it has two distinct horns that rise from the top of its neck frill like in Einiosaurus, it has a large nasal boss as seen in Pachyrhinosaurus. This is why Achelousaurus has been considered a transitional form that links these two ceratopsian dinosaurs … Read more
In Depth Arkharavia is currently regarded to be a dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur because the lack of additional remains means that it will be very difficult to infer further fossils to the genus. In addition to this, vertebrae added to Arkharavia may actually have come from a hadrosaurid dinosaur, which means that only the … Read more
In Depth Yi is certainly one of the more bizarre dinosaurs that were named in 2015. In fact this is reflected in the full type species name of Yi qi which translates to English as ‘strange wing’. This is a reference to how the hands of Yi not only had elongated fingers, but how there … Read more
In Depth Sinosauropteryx was the first confirmed feathered but non-avian dinosaur discovered. What this means is that while Sinosauropteryx had protofeathers, it was still more like theropod dinosaurs than birds. Sinosauropteryx is often described as being very small at sixty-eight centimetres long however this measurement was just for the holotype specimen which was a juvenile. … Read more
In Depth Zuniceratops is very important to the fossil record as it is the first ceratopsian known to have brow horns and also the oldest species recovered from North America. This lends weight to the theory that the horned ceratopsians evolved in North America as opposed to Asia. The frill on Zuniceratops was fenestrated, meaning … Read more
In Depth Although not as large as the North American Utahraptor, Austroraptor is still the largest dromaeosaurid currently known from South America. However to mark Austroraptor down for just this reason would be doing the genus a grave injustice as Austroraptor displays many features that make it unique among the other members of its group. … Read more
In Depth The story of Ornithodesmus can be a confusing one as for a long time the genus was credited with being a pterosaur, whereas we now know this was a mistake. It all began in 1887 when Harry Govier Seeley described a set of six sacral vertebrae that he thought belonged to a bird. … Read more
In Depth Arenysaurus was a late Cretaceous hadrosaurid dinosaur, and of extra significance since it was a lambeosaurine. This means that Arenysaurus had a hollow crest on its head, and lived in a time when lambeosaurine hadrosaurs had been largely replaced by saurolophine hadrosaurs in other parts of the world like in North America. Further … Read more