In Depth Alcione is a genus of small nyctosaurid pterosaur that lived in North Africa during the late Cretaceous. Alcione is noted for having very short wings, something that could aid either flapping flight, or perhaps streamlining for use after entering water. This feature combined with the knowledge of the Alcione fossils coming from a … Read more
In Depth Further Reading - Crocodylian diversity peak and extinction in the late Cenozoic of the northern Neotropics. - Nature Communications 4(1907):1-9. - T. M. Scheyer, O. A. Aguilera, M. Delfino, D. C. Fortier, A. A. Carlini, R. S�nchez, J. D. Carrillo-Brice�o, L. Quiroz & M. R. S�nchez-Villagra - 2013.
In Depth Nipponosaurus is classed as a lambeosaurine hadrosaurid because of the hollow head crest that rises up from the top of the snout, though the incomplete nature of the known remains makes it hard to establish fine details, and reconstructions are usually completed with comparisons to other better preserved genera. Also, because the fossils … Read more
In Depth A very small sauropod, Rayososaurus is considered to be very similar to another genus called Rebbachisaurus. Because Rayososaurus is from South America and Rebbachisaurus is from Africa, this has given rise to the notion that these two continents were joined for much longer than previously thought back in the Cretaceous. Further Reading – … Read more
In Depth Although not as famous as some sauropods like Apatosaurus and Diplodocus, Camarasaurus actually appears to have been the most common judging by the large numbers of remains. Some Camarasaurus specimens are actually almost complete and the genus also has one of the largest numbers of sauropod skulls attributed (for those who haven’t realised … Read more
In Depth An often included genus in dinosaur books, Arrhinoceratops is another example of a popular dinosaur known by very little fossil material. In this case Arrhinoceratops has been based upon the description of only a single partially preserved skull. Arrhinoceratops was named because William Parks thought that it lacked a nasal horn, and too … Read more
In Depth Parvicursor is a genus of alvarezsaur known to have lived in Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous. Like with some relatives, Parvicursor had hands reduced to a single stubby horn which was likely used to punch holes into termite mounds so that an individual Parvicursor could feed upon the termites within. Further Reading - … Read more
In Depth Jucha is a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur that lived in Russian waters during the early Cretaceous. Jucha is noted for being very primitive in form for an elasmosaurid plesiosaur, though it is uncertain if Jucha was an early development, or perhaps a later surviving example of aprimitive elasmosaurid plesisoaur. Further reading - A … Read more
In Depth Much of Segnosaurus is still unknown and as such reconstructions of Segnosaurus are usually based with the addition of Erlikosaurus material to fill in the missing parts. Although very similar to one another, Segnosaurus has a key difference in the mouth in that the outer surface of the lower jaw begins at the … Read more
In Depth Araeoscelis is another representative of the early diapsids. The teeth of Araeoscelis were quite large and blunter than its contemporary Petrolacosaurus, suggesting that it specialised in insects with tougher bodies. Although officially considered a diapsid with two fenestrae behind the eye socket, the lower fensetra was closed with bone, meaning that Araeoscelis could … Read more