Most underrated dinosaurs

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

I was inspired by some of the other threads out here to start this in order to see what dinosaurs people thought were underrated!
I'll go first, this is the Angeac-Charente 'Ornithomimisaur'


It's known from numerous specimens of all different ages found in the Angeac-Charente Bonebed in France. A preliminary description was published in 2014(I think?) which classified it as an ornithomimisaur. However based on my personal observations it seems to much more closely resemble elaphrosaurs. (And it wouldn't be the first time an elaphrosaur has been mistaken for an ornithomimisaur.) If it does turn out to be an elaphrosaur that would be quite a big deal as it would be by far the northernmost known elaphrosaur and is also quite similar to a few fragmentary Wessex taxa that could then also represent elaphrosaurids. That would also make it one of the most complete elaphrosaurids up there with Limusaurus!

[Faelrin]

Bruh read my mind. Well not necessarily, but since you mentioned it, Limusaurus is definitely underrated. Little buddy got that whole sort of alvarezsaur thing going on. Or at least looks like it.

Podokesaurus is another I would say. I mean sure it was a Ceolophysis like animal, with the front half missing, with the only known fossils were destroyed in a tragic museum fire, but it is one the few dinosaur skeletons to come out of New England (if not the only. Edit: Scratch that, I forgot Anchisaurus was found within the same formation as this one). I was born in NH, and my parents were born and raised in MA (and I lived there for a short time as well), so I would say once I learned of it, it became kind of important to me in someway.

Edit: Now that I think about it more, Anchisaurus is probably also underrated.

[Perotorum]

I have several candidates, Invictarx, Agujaceratops, and Denversaurus, the former 2 because of their relatively unique paleoenvironment and ecology, and also because Invictarx has the best name of any taxa( other than funcusvermis).

Denversaurus is due to both its general appearance, but also through its ecology, implying that due to its size, multiple large ankylosaurs could inhabit Hell Creek, and due to its relatively small size, it could be viewed as a mid-sized herbivore and prey animal, something relatively rare in Hell Creek, as it implies that juvenile edmontosaurus, triceratops, and ankylosaurus did not exclusively fill the niche of a mid-sized low browsing animal.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

By no means "underrated" in the same way as those mentioned above, but I feel like allosaurus and dimetrodon have lost a lot of popularity to carnotaurus and spinosaurus, repsectively.

[Sim]

Great idea for a thread!  And great first post!

Limusaurus definitely belongs here.  It's a herbivorous ceratosaurian as an adult(!), it's known from very complete remains(!) and it has teeth as a juvenile and a beak as an adult!  This is one of the all-time strangest animals and it's weird how little attention it gets!

I don't think Allosaurus has lost popularity to Carnotaurus...  Allosaurus still gets A LOT of attention.  Dimetrodon to Spinosaurus, yes, and I'm glad as it made no sense to include Dimetrodon in sets of Mesozoic animals.

One from me is the White Rock spinosaurid.  I don't usually have much interest in fragmentary species, but this one caught my attention because it's a spinosaurid in the same size class as Spinosaurus!  It's from the Early Cretaceous of the UK and is only known from a few bones.  Darren Naish published an interesting article about it here: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2022/6/8/giant-spinosaurid-dinosaur-from-the-isle-of-wight

I have more coming soon!

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

I'm surprised how many people think limisaurus is what I posted about lol. While it is certainly underrated my original post was reference an as-of-yet unnamed taxon from France lol.

[Sim]

Oh, I understood your original post was about the french ornithomimosaur/elaphrosaur, when I read @Faelrin's post I thought he was mentioning Limusaurus separately.


Sinocalliopteryx.  It's a large compsognathid(!) that is known to have eaten prey that was capable of flying away quickly (Confuciusornis, Sinornithosaurus!), it's known from complete remains that include its skeleton and its feathering(!) and it has the same banded pattern of feathers on its tail as Sinosauropteryx!  Also, if you look at its fossilised mouth it looks fierce!

[Sim]

Tianyuraptor.  An additional, large, specimen has been found which has features of both the Tianyuraptor holotype and Zhenyuanlong holotype that suggests Zhenyuanlong is the same animal as Tianyuraptor.  All three specimens are highly complete, with the newest specimen being the largest, around 2.5m long which results in a surprisingly big animal due to its tail being on the short side for a dromaeosaurid and due to its long legs.  A photo of the large specimen can be seen here: https://twitter.com/Tomozaurus/status/1475697562472497156

[Sim]

Adasaurus.  It's a Deinonychus-sized dromaeosaurid from the famous Nemegt Formation!  Yet in BotM it was made Velociraptor-sized and in Prehistoric Planet Velociraptor appeared in the Nemegt Formation instead of Adasaurus (Adasaurus is known from more complete remains than the undescribed Nemegt Velociraptor species).

[Sim]

Troodontids in general are underrated.

Saurornithoides mongoliensis.  It was the first troodontid individual found!  Its decent remains showed a new type of animal, particularly in the head and foot which were both unlike anything known at the time!  Velociraptor's holotype preserved its sickle claw, but it was thought to be a hand claw at the time, while Saurornithoides' sickle claw was preserved articulated with its foot.

Zanabazar junior.  This is a large troodontid, like Adasaurus from the popular Nemegt Formation!  Its skull is extremely well-preserved.

The two asian troodontids above were the only individuals of their group known, besides Stenonychosaurus, and their skulls were used to fill in the gaps in Stenonychosaurus's.

Sinornithoides.  Mei gets a lot of attention for its preserved sleeping posture, which is warranted, but Sinornithoides was found in that posture first.  Sinornithoides also has remarkably elongated snout and legs.  I wonder how it obtained food?

Sinovenator.  The discovery of Sinovenator conclusively showed troodontids were closely related to dromaeosaurids and birds, and not to ornithomimosaurs as some palaeontologists were thinking.

Byronosaurus.  This one's snout is even longer than Sinornithoides'!  It also has asymmetrically placed ears, like owls, which gives an idea of how it found prey.

[marisaura]

basal sauropodomorphs in general are highly underrated in my view. they have a range of unique body shapes that aren't seen anywhere else in the dinosaur clade and provide a fascinating look into the evolution of the giants we all know and love, but they're completely ignored by toy companies and dinosaur media. melanorosaurus and antetonitrus are probably my favorites.

i also love the thescelosaurids. the amount of remains found from thescelosaurus itself make it one of the best known dinosaur taxa, including several specimens with extensive soft tissue preservation and one from the tanis site. and oryctodromeus could burrow!

i was also going to mention elaphrosaurs, but y'all beat me to it.

[Sim]

Basal sauropodomorphs are definitely very underrated!  I don't know what else people have to do to show figure companies that an accurate Plateosaurus figure is needed!  Buriolestes stands out to me as it is a carnivorous sauropodomorph!  Lufengosaurus is the first dinosaur to be put on display in China and even now there still isn't a good figure of it, despite its completeness and uniqueness!

Another underrated dinosaur is Shuvuuia.  It's a remarkably complete derived alvarezsaurid yet it gets ignored, people favouring the larger but less complete Mononykus.

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

A couple more from me, Sciurimimus and Scipionyx are species of Megalosauroid and Carcharodontosaur respectively that are known from juvenile remains. The interesting part that not enough people talk about imo is that both preserve traces of feathers, meaning that if their phylogenetic assignment holds up, they prove that at the very least their two groups had feathers at least during part of their development!

[triceratops83]

i also love the thescelosaurids. the amount of remains found from thescelosaurus itself make it one of the best known dinosaur taxa, including several specimens with extensive soft tissue preservation and one from the tanis site. and oryctodromeus could burrow!

One of my childhood favourites was Hypsilophodon. I was always disappointed you couldn't get a decent figure of it or any small Ornithopod like it. Especially now that we have got an idea from Kulindadromeus as to what their integument might be like.

[Sim]

A couple more from me, Sciurimimus and Scipionyx are species of Megalosauroid and Carcharodontosaur respectively that are known from juvenile remains. The interesting part that not enough people talk about imo is that both preserve traces of feathers, meaning that if their phylogenetic assignment holds up, they prove that at the very least their two groups had feathers at least during part of their development!

Scipionyx doesn't have feathers preserved.  Concavenator appears to be feathered however, so carcharodontosaurs with feathers is still supported by it.

Thescelosaurus is definitely underrated, such a peculiar animal it was.  Funny how one of its species is even called T. neglectus.

[thedeadlymoose]

i also love the thescelosaurids. the amount of remains found from thescelosaurus itself make it one of the best known dinosaur taxa, including several specimens with extensive soft tissue preservation and one from the tanis site. and oryctodromeus could burrow!

One of my childhood favourites was Hypsilophodon. I was always disappointed you couldn't get a decent figure of it or any small Ornithopod like it. Especially now that we have got an idea from Kulindadromeus as to what their integument might be like.

Very much this. They're underrated even among the underrated.

[Takama]

Heterodontosaurus anyone?

[EmperorDinobot]

Heterodontosaurus is underrated, @Takama , and it's such an interesting animal, too. It needs new toys for sure. 

@Sim Thescelosaurus is my favorite "small" ornitho...


Wait... What changed here?



Limusaurus, elaphrosaurids and noasaurids are some of my top favorite dinosaurs of all time. I'm literally obsessed with them. Shame I don't talk about them much these days. They also need better toys.

[Duna]

Definitely, any OLD dinosaurs like:
- Heterodontosaurus
- Hypsilophodon
- Scelidosaurus
- Tenontosaurus
- Camptosaurus

And that's why they are on top of my list of new adquisitions for the future, way before any other more modern species.

[Sim]

- Heterodontosaurus
- Hypsilophodon
- Scelidosaurus
- Tenontosaurus
- Camptosaurus

I agree with all of these.  I'm also going to add the possible Triassic ornithischians Silesaurus and Lewisuchus.  The latter even has osteoderms on its back, challenging the idea that feathers were basal to Dinosauria.  Lewisuchus is also carnivorous, which along with Buriolestes suggests dinosaurs were originally carnivorous.