Having grown up in the 80s and the 90s, I can vividly recall Lambeosaurus sometimes being described as one of the very biggest ornithopods, rivalling Shantungosaurus itself. That notion was based on a specimen known as LACM 17715, discovered in Baja California, Mexico, and named L. laticaudus in 1981. But in 2012, it was renamed as a separate genus, Magnapaulia, and...
High tide comes as a blessing for Shipwreck, who is in a very tight spot right now. Literally. In her temararious attempt to catch a much smaller mosasaur, she pursued it right into a small, shallow lagoon. Her prey then scooted back into open water just as the tide went out, leaving Shipwreck effectively trapped. For the past twelve hours,...
The flakes are pelting down fiercely, but one still must eat. Peetyuk is hunched over in the middle of a sea of white, doggedly digging away at the hard-packed snow with his one good tusk. He remembers all too well that day when he lost most of his other tusk, in a musth-fuelled scrap with another bull last season. Broke...
“Season’s Greetings once again, fellow dinosaur lovers! This year, we are adding an extra dose of culture to our holiday review by paying homage to The Nutcracker. I, your humble Dr. Bella Bricking, am playing the titular character while my delightful companion Beth Buildit plays the Sugar Plum Fairy.” “This is the worst thing you’ve done to me yet,...
Purussaurus, like Deinosuchus and Sarcosuchus, is a top contender for the title of the biggest crocodyliforme of all time. Unlike those other two, it was a proper member of the order Crocodilia, a commodious caiman that dwelled in the rivers and lakes of South America during the Miocene epoch between 16 and 5.3 million years ago. And Mattel, with their penchant for producing...
Aside from Tyrannosaurus rex, not very many prehistoric animals can rightly lay claim to the status of pop culture icon, but Brontosaurus is most definitely one of them. It is by no means the biggest sauropod, nor is it the most unusual, but it is blessed with a name that always rolls off one’s tongue in a most satisfyingly smooth way. For a...
That dratted Dakotaraptor pack must have been either desperate with hunger or straight up galoots to try to take on Scutum. To their credit, they attacked him with all their ferocity and might, surrounding him on all sides, distracting him with loud cries and violent wing flapping, and leaping onto his back to dig in with their hooked...
Ah, Nanotyrannus. It has perhaps been the most divisive dinosaur of them all, the one most likely to spark intense discussion, heated arguments, and outright vitriol among members of the paleontology community. It’s been doing so for decades now, with one side contending that it is its own beast, its own pygmy tyrant, its own valid taxon, and the other...
Standing tall atop the sloping ridge that overlooks the north side of the lake, with the sun beaming down generously on her, Judith surveys the activity going on below. At the bottom of the ridge, next to the water and directly before her, a huge crocodilian is dozing peacefully. Further down the shore, a family group of fellow ceratopsians (but...
Hailing from the Wahweap Formation of the Grand Staircase in Utah, Lythronax, the “gore king,” is one of the more recently discovered North American tyrannosaurids. It is estimated to have been up to 8 metres in length and 2.5 tons in weight, making it comparable in size to the better known Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus and significantly smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex, of course. Lythronax...
Stellasaurus is a centrosaurine that lived in North America around 75 million years ago. Its name of course means “star lizard,” and it was bestowed upon this particular species both for the shape of its frill and as a homage to the late, great David Bowie. It lived alongside its fellow centrosaurine Einiosaurus, the hadrosaurs Hypacrosaurus and Maiasaura, the ankylosaurs Edmontonia and...
The sky is turning white and the winds are picking up, which means it will soon begin to snow again. Suluk knows this, and she also knows that she must return to her chicks soon, but the familiar scent she picked up while out hunting is getting stronger. It is the unmistakable scent of something dead. And there, up ahead,...
