In Depth Exact measurements of Miodentosaurus have been hard to establish, but this could be the largest thalattosaur genus there is. At the time of writing the next largest genus is Concavispina, which is confirmed to have at least grown to as big as 3.64 meters long. Like its smaller cousins, Miodentosaurus was a reptile … Read more
In Depth Allopleuron was a large sea turtle that swam in the late Cretaceous seas and may have had a cosmopolitan distribution at least across the Northern Hemisphere. Several species have been named in the past but today some only consider the type species A. hofmanni as valid. With remains possibly being as late as … Read more
In Depth Aratasaurus is a genus of Coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the early Cretaceous. The holotype individual of Aratasaurus is estimated to have been about four years old at the time of death, and only a juvenile or at most a sub adult. Older adults would have likely been larger, … Read more
In Depth Ocepechelon is a fascinating genus of sea turtle for two reasons. First, with a skull that was seventy centimetres long, Ocepechelon must have been huge, but unfortunately without a shell and/or post cranial skeleton we don’t know how big. Second, the mouth of Ocepechelon is formed into a pipette-like feature which suggests that … Read more
In Depth Adynomosaurus is a genus of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived in Spain during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - Adynomosaurus arcanus, a new lambeosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Ibero-Armorican Island of the European Archipelago. - Cretaceous Research. 96: 19–37. - Albert Prieto-M�rquez, Victor, Fondevilla, Albert G. Sell�s, Jonathan R.Wagner & �ngel Galobart … Read more
In Depth The western word for naming a genus dragon is ‘draco’, in China its ‘long’, but Azhdarcho is the Uzbek word for such a mythical beast. Azhdarcho is also the centre for the azdarchid line of pterosaurs. The azhdarchids are known for having long necks, the result of neck vertebrae that are longer in … Read more
In Depth Liaoceratops was a fairly small neoceratopsian dinosaur that is nonetheless a good example of the ancestors of the later and larger ceratopsian dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Styracosaurus that lived during the late Cretaceous. Liaoceratops had the beginnings of a neck frill, though nothing like the same scale as later descendants, and no … Read more
In Depth Chuxiongosaurus is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in China during the very early Jurassic. For this reason Chuxiongosaurus is often remembered as the first basal sauropodomorph dinosaur to be discovered in an early Jurassic aged deposit in China. When compared to other sauropodomorph genera, Chuxiongosaurus is noted as being similar to … Read more
In Depth Astrophocaudia was a genus of sauropod named in 2012, and considered to be part of a group of sauropods called the Somphospondyli along with Sauroposeidon. Further Reading - Revision of the sauropod dinosaurs of the Lower Cretaceous Trinity Group, southern USA, with the description of a new genus, Michael D. D’Emic - 2012.
In Depth The problem with Bagaraatan is that it is only known from partial remains that in themselves could be placed within a variety of different theropod groups. Leading palaeontologists have described Bagaraatan as a tyrannosaur, troodontid and even a maniraptorian, all of the main carnivorous theropod classes that were active in Asia towards the … Read more