In Depth Serendipaceratops is often regarded as a dubious dinosaur genus, but if it is not, then it is actually the first ceratopsian dinosaur to be discovered as living in Australia. The story begins in 1993 when during the Dinosaur Cove Project, an isolated almost complete ulna bone (the same as one of the ones … Read more
In Depth Since its creation Halticosaurus has had a lot of fossil remains attributed to it but most of these have been reassigned to other genera. Best known of these is the creation of a new species called H. liliensterni which ended up being raised as the genus Liliensternus in 1984. Other theropod dinosaur remains … Read more
In Depth Phyllodon is usually credited as a dubious dinosaur genus as at the time of writing only the teeth and lower jaws of this genus are known, making the attribution of new fossils difficult at best. Phyllodon however has been noted as being similar to the genera Nanosaurus. Further Reading - Teeth of ornithischian … Read more
In Depth At the time of its description, Ningyuansaurus is considered to be one of the earliest known oviraptosaurs to appear on the Mesozoic landscape. So primitive is Ningyuansaurus, that the skull it proportionately longer than later oviraptosaurs, and still contains teeth, ten in the upper jaw (four premaxilla, six maxilla), and at least fourteen … Read more
In Depth Most study about Tarjadia so far has been concerning the osteoderms (sometimes called scutes), pieces of bone that resided within the skin. The osteoderms of Tarjadia are very distinctive in that they have heavy pitting on their surface. These osteoderms likely afforded Tarjadia a fair amount of protection from other predators of the … Read more
In Depth The type fossils of Ostromia were originally identified as belongs to a pterosaur and then eventually a species of Archaeopteryx before finally being re-identified as a distinct genus and a kind of anchiornithine dinosaur. Ostromia would have likely been a small predator, possibly more of a hunter of insects. Further Reading - Re-evaluation … Read more
In Depth Known from the late Cretaceous period of Europe, Betasuchus was originally known as a species of Megalosaurus, the first genus of dinosaur, and theropod to be named which saw it being treated as a ‘wastebasket’ for all future theropod remains until more in depth study into dinosaurs began to be conducted. This classification … Read more
In Depth Although Demandasaurus is not represented by a lot of complete fossil material, it has been identified as a rebbachisaurid sauropod. As a rebbachisaurid, Demandasaurus was a form of diplodocid sauropod, and an offshoot of the Dicraeosaurinae. Demandasaurus would have course been related to the type genus of the Rebbachisauridae, Rebbachisaurus, but it has … Read more
In Depth Paradoxically Micropachycephalosaurus is one of the smallest dinosaurs that we know about, yet it easily has one of the longest names. Micropachycephalosaurus was named from a partially preserved individual that in 1978 was perceived as what we now call a pachycephalosaur. However more modern analysis in the early portion of the twenty-first century … Read more
In Depth Yakemys is a genus of macrobaenid Turtle that lived in South East Asia during the very early Cretaceous. Further reading - Yakemys multiporcata n. g. n. sp., a Large Macrobaenid Turtle from the Basal Cretaceous of Thailand, with a Review of the Turtle Fauna from the Phu Kradung Formation and Its Stratigraphical Implications. … Read more