In Depth For a long time Helveticosaurus was thought to be one of the placodonts, specialist marine reptiles that lived in the Triassic seas that fed upon shellfish. However further analysis has revealed that only the vertebra of Helveticosaurus are similar to the placodonts, which has led to Helveticosaurus being re-classed as a diapsid (two … Read more
In Depth The turbulent history of Brontosaurus For well over one hundred years there was a great question asked amongst dinosaur enthusiasts; is Brontosaurus actually Apatosaurus? Well this all began in a period of American paleontological history dubbed the ‘bone wars’, a fierce rivalry between two men named Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. … Read more
In Depth At the time of the genus description, Thanatotheristes is known only from very partially preserved skull and jaw bones. However, these bones show that Thanatotheristes was a large tyrannosaur, and one with a close similarity to Daspletosaurus. The discovery of Thanatotheristes has also added further evidence that the tyrannosaurs of Laramidia (the land … Read more
In Depth Eousdryosaurus is a genus of small ornithopod dinosaur that lived in Portugal during the late Jurassic. The name Eousdryosaurus means ‘eastern Dryosaurus’, a reference to how Eousdryosaurus is similar to the genus Dryosaurus, but globally lived further to the east, Eousdryosaurus in Portugal, and Dryosaurus in North America. Further Reading - A new … Read more
In Depth When named in 1896, Cynodontosuchus was not only the earliest known sebecosuchian crocodile, it was also the first confirmed as living before the Cenozoic period. Since this time there are now several Cretaceous sebecosuchian crocodiles known to us, and one of these genera, Baurusuchus, has been proposed by some to be a junior … Read more
In Depth A procolophonomorph parareptile from Russia, Rhipaeosaurus lived during the Mid Permian. Rhipaeosaurus was originally placed within its own group the Rhipaeosauridae, though later analysis seems to place Rhipaeosaurus somewhere between being a nycteroleterid to a basal pareiasaur. Further Reading - New Discoveries of Permian Terrestrial Vertebrates in Bashkiria and the Tchkalov Province. - … Read more
In Depth Carsosaurus was large for and aigialosaurid, but the claim to fame for this reptile was the 2001 discovery of four juveniles inside the body of an adult. The high degree of preservation in the juveniles as well as their location strongly suggests that these juveniles were actually offspring waiting to be born, and … Read more
In Depth At between eleven and thirteen meters long it goes without saying that Purussaurus was an apex predator capable of attacking large prey. As a caiman crocodile, Purussaurus had an extremely stout and robust skull that housed large conical teeth suited for gripping and holding onto powerful prey. Purussaurus is one of the growing … Read more
In Depth Crichtonsaurus seems to have been a fairly small genus of ankylosaur that lived in China during the earlier stages of the Late Cretaceous period. As an ankylosaur Crichtonsaurus would have been a squat quadrupedal dinosaur that browsed upon low growing plants. At the time of writing two species of Crichtonsaurus have been identified … Read more
In Depth Fossils sitting in a museum and sometimes thought to belong to one kind of ceratopsian dinosaur are sometimes found to actually represent another upon later examination. This is how others such as Mojoceratops and Spinops were discovered, and is also how Ojoceratops was discovered. Ojoceratops was classed as Torosaurus, but is thought to … Read more