In Depth Kulceratops is a very interesting genus of ceratopsian dinosaur as the holotype has been dated to coming from a fossil deposit Albian of the Early Cretaceous in age. This makes Kulceratops a candidate for being one of the first ceratopsian dinosaurs to appear. Unfortunately Kulceratops is only known from a partial maxilla (upper … Read more
In Depth Shuvosaurus was described from the discovery of a skull that had no teeth but a well-developed beak-like anterior portion. Because of this, Shuvosaurus was at the time considered to possibly be an ancient ancestor to the ornithomimosaurs, a group of dinosaurs that at the time of writing are only known from Cretaceous era … Read more
In Depth Orientognathus is a genus of pterosaur that lived in China during the mid Jurassic. Further Reading - A new rhamphorhynchid pterosaur (Pterosauria) from Jurassic deposits of Liaoning Province, China. - Zootaxa 3911(1):119-129. - J. Lu, H. Pu, X. Wei, H. Chang & M. Kundrat - 2015.
In Depth For well over a hundred years Proganochelys was regarded as the oldest known turtle, a title the genus held until the 2008 description of Odontochelys, a slightly earlier genus that lived in the Carnian stage of the Triassic. Proganochelys had a developed carapace and plastron, the upper and lower parts of the shell … Read more
In Depth The dinosaur genus Titanosaurus is a bit of a paradox. As the first titanosaur named it is treated as the type genus of the Titanosauria, a group of more advanced sauropod dinosaurs that began to appear at the end of the Jurassic and later established themselves as some of the most common types … Read more
In Depth Originally assigned as a species of Platypterygius, Kyhytysuka is a genus of ichthyosaur that lived in waters around South America during the Early Cretaceous. Kyhytysuka is loosely described as a hyper carnivore, and this is because of many observations that can be made for the skull and teeth. In Kyhytysuka the teeth are … Read more
In Depth Patagosaurus is one of the earliest sauropods known to have roamed South America, however it’s usually the Cretaceous genera such as Amargasaurus, Saltasaurus and Argentinosaurus that usually get all of the attention. At eighteen meters long Patagosaurus was big for a mid-Jurassic era sauropod, yet it was not as advanced as the sauropods … Read more
In Depth Named after the Volga River, Volgadraco shows morphological features that show the transition from the more basal azdarchid pterosaurs to the later genera that existed at the end of the Cretaceous. Later studies however have concluded that Volgadraco may actually have been either a nyctosaurid or pteranodont pterosaur. Further Reading – A New … Read more
In Depth Hailing from China’s world famous Yixian Formation, Sinovenator was a fairly small genus of troodontid dinosaur. Due to the small size, Sinovenator is perceived to have been a predator of smaller animals such as lizards and mammals. Further Reading - A basal troodontid from the Early Cretaceous of China. - Nature 415:780-784. - … Read more
In Depth Given that compsognathids usually grow to just over one meter in length, Sinocalliopteryx is the veritable giant of the group being even larger than others such as Huaxiagnathus. This large size meant that Sinocalliopteryx was not satisfied with the small lizards and mammals usually associated with their smaller kin, and is a notion … Read more