Dinovember 23 2016
Tylosaurus: among the three largest species of mosasaur. It is theorized that it used its hard pointy shout to ram and stun its prey. I think it very neat that it is closely related to modern day monitor lizards and...
read moreDinovember 22 2016
Longisquama: this odd reptile was about 6 inches long. The defining characteristic is the long structures sprouting from its back. There is much debate on what they were. Some think feathers, some say modified scales, possibly even thick hair-like tube ‘thingies’. My favourite was the suggestion that perhaps it just died laying on top of several ferns. these were drawn by my son at school. I managed to hold in my squeee when I saw them. I love seeing the things...
read moreDinovember 21 2016
Anurognathus: a small pterosaur. It’s skull was wider than it was long, and it had a very short tail. Wikipedia also says something about structures on the jaw that indicate bristly hairs (whiskers?) on the snout. I actually drew another version this morning that I was very happy with… but then before I could save: painter12 crashed on me. booooo. I was grumpy and put off drawing it again until...
read moreDinovember 20 2016
Drinker: named after palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope. In 1990 it was described as living in a swampy environment (based on they types of fossils found in the same area).
read moreDinovember 19 2016
Titanophoneus: this creature lived before the dinosaurs. it makes me think of some kind of hippo crossed with a komodo dragon. Sure it looks friendly here, but it’s name means “titanic...
read moreDinovember 18 2016
Micropachycephalosaurus: This is a rather diminutive relative of the regular sized pachycephalosaurus. Officially the dinosaur with the longest name, so of course it is among the smallest of the dinosaurs. (roughly cat sized) Wikipedia didn’t say anything about them butting heads like their larger cousins....
read moreDinovember 17 2016
Balaur Bondoc: this relative of the velociraptor lived on an island. Isolated island evolution generally makes larger animals smaller. This was the case for the balaur. It was the sized of a large dog (not a huge dog, just large) and it had two great big retractable claws and two small ones on each foot. Apparently the shape wasn’t entirely suitable for slashing and the claws were probably used for holding onto it’s prey while it...
read moreDinovember 16 2016
Nigersaurus: named after the country in which it was discovered… I think it should have been named “goofygrinasaurus” after the teeth that define it’s mouth. All of it’s teeth were in a line straight across it’s face, instead of curved around the sides. I assume this helped it to absolutely mow down more ferns with every...
read moreDinovember 2016 15
Massospondylus: an early sauropod. originally thought to have walked on all fours, but palaeontologists have determined they were bipedal.
read moreDinovember 2016 14
Irritator: not the first thing I would name a dinosaur. I don’t think there is a way to determine how annoying a dinosaur was. This dinosaur is known from a single fossil. A “holotype” is when there is a single known specimen (fossil, example, etc) used to represent the entire...
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