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
In Depth Not much is known about Baalsaurus other than it is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur that lived in South America during the late Cretaceous. Baalsaurus is named after the Baal fossil site, which is named after the ancient Phoenician god Baal. Further Reading - Baalsaurus mansillai gen. et sp. nov. a new titanosaurian … Read more
In Depth Along with Magyarosaurus, Ampelosaurus is currently one of the best known sauropods from Europe and is in fact another example of a Late Cretaceous era titanosaur. Remains of Ampelosaurus have been found in what would have been a floodplain in the late Cretaceous. However when the fossils were discovered they were now near … Read more
In Depth Segisaurus was once considered to be a very important link in the evolution of theropods because it was thought to have had solid bones instead of the hollow bones of other earlier genera such as Coelophysis. However a later study into the holotype remains that took place in 2005 (Carrano, Hutchinson & Sampson) … Read more
In Depth Along with Sinornithomimus, Shenzhousaurus is one of the few ornithomimosaurs that are known to have had gastroliths inside their stomachs. This has led to the suggestion that Shenzhousaurus had a greater leaning towards a herbivorous diet since gastroliths are usually associated with herbivorous animals. However it is not unknown for some predatory animals … Read more
In Depth Nemegtonykus is a genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the late Cretaceous. Further Reading - A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia”. Scientific Reports. 9 (1). - Sungjin Lee, Jin-Young Park, Yuong-Nam Lee, Su-Hwan Kim, Junchang L�, Rinchen Barsbold & Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar - 2019.
In Depth Rapaxavis is a genus of enantiornithine bird that lived in China during the early Cretaceous. Further Reading - Anatomy of the Early Cretaceous bird Rapaxavis pani, a new species from Liaoning Province, China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29(2):545-554. - E. M. Morschhauser, D. J. Varricchio, C. Gao, J. Liu, Z. Wang, X. … Read more
In Depth A very exciting find, the juvenile specimen of Rapetosaurus is to date the most complete titanosaurid skeleton ever found. This has allowed many of the gaps in the understanding of these dinosaurs to be filled in, including how the titanosaurs fit in among the sauropod group. This new understanding of titanosaur morphology has … Read more