In Depth Because of the scant material available, Alectrosaurus is not very well known. The only thing that can be said about it with any confidence is that it was a tyrannosauroid, the superfamily that includes the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. Further elaboration on this is not currently possible and the exact position of Alectrosaurus within … Read more
In Depth It’s hard to imagine how a dinosaur can be named from just a single portion of a leg bone, but this is what happened with Ozraptor. Although incomplete, in 2005 the palaeontologist Oliver Rauhut noted that this tibia does have a vertical median ridge on the astragalar groove. Previously Ozraptor was labelled as … Read more
In Depth Brontomerus has been given its name for good reason, it had possibly the largest thigh muscles of all the known sauropods. This has been established from the proportionately large ilium that also projects forward. The ilium is where the thigh muscles attach and this enlargement not only suggests enlarged muscles but a degree … Read more
In Depth Amargasaurus has easily become one of the most popular dinosaurs thanks to the elongated neural spines of the neck vertebrae that are immediately apparent from even a casual glance at the skeleton of this dinosaur. Technically known as hemispinous processes, these spines rise up from the top of the vertebrae and are bifurcated, … Read more
In Depth Malawisaurus began its classification history as a species of Gigantosaurus, however this genus has had a long problematic history regarding its validity and further study towards the end of the twentieth century confirmed that material attributed to Gigantosaurus dixeyi actually belonged to a separate genus, and so Malawisaurus was created. Malawisaurus was a … Read more
In Depth The first remains of Albertosaurus were recovered from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in 1884, and these were the type specimen along with a smaller skull and some of the post crania. However Albertosaurus was not yet identified and when these parts were studied in 1892 by Edward Drinker Cope, he assigned them to … Read more
In Depth Lufengosaurus has the honour of being the first dinosaur to ever be assembled and mounted for display in China, and even today is one of the more popular exhibits in Chinese natural history displays concerning dinosaurs. The first species of Lufengosaurus, L. huenei, was named in 1940, and a second larger species, L. … Read more
In Depth A close relative to Vulcanodon, Tazoudasaurus was quite a bit larger than its more famous cousin, though still small when compared to many of the sauropods of the late Jurassic. Also, although known only from partial remains, Tazoudasaurus is still represented by the most complete early Jurassic sauropod remains known. V-shaped wear patterns … Read more
In Depth Phaedrolosaurus is a problematic genus of dinosaur because at the time of writing the only fossil specimen for this genus is a single tooth. Partial post cranial remains that were once attributed to the genus upon the basis that they were found near the tooth have since been removed and used to establish … Read more
In Depth Alioramus has stirred a lot of interest and controversy since its discovery, and even though Alioramus has earned worldwide popularity it was for a long time only known from a partial skull and three metatarsals (foot bones). Another problem was the fact that when reconstructed, the skull was narrow and low like in … Read more