Author Archives

  • List of My Articles on the Cedar Mountain Formation

    The reconstructed skull of Utahraptor, on display in Brigham Young University’s Museum of Paleontology. Photo by Jaren Wilkey of Brigham Young University (January 26, 2018). Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BYU_Utahraptor_skull.jpg. The Cedar Mountain Formation is a North American geological formation which… Read More ›

  • February 27 – The Chariot Race of Februus

    February is the month of Februus, the ancient Roman god of purification. The name Februus comes from the Latin verb februa (which may have either Etruscan or Sabine roots), which means “to purge, purify, or cleanse”. The word “fever” is based on… Read More ›

  • Serradraco

    Serradraco, meaning “saw dragon” in Latin in reference to the saw-like appearance of its jaws, was a pterosaur which lived in England during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 135-132 million years ago. Fossil remains were discovered during the 1800s in… Read More ›

  • Leedsichthys

    Leedsichthys was a very large prehistoric saltwater fish which lived during the middle and late Jurassic Period, circa 165-150 million years ago. It was named in 1889 in honor of Alfred N. Leeds who found the first specimen. Leedsichthys belonged… Read More ›

  • Martharaptor

    Martharaptor was a therizinosaur theropod dinosaur which lived in Utah during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 135-132 million years ago. Therizinosaurs are known mostly from the middle and later parts of the Cretaceous Period. Fossils dating to the early Cretaceous… Read More ›

  • Aegirosaurus

    Aegirosaurus leptospondylus was a species of ichthyosaur which lived in the seas around Europe during the late Jurassic Period and early Cretaceous Period, roughly 147-135 million years ago. Aegirosaurus belonged to a family of ichthyosaurs called the ophthalmosaurids (Bardet and… Read More ›

  • Adasaurus

    Adasaurus mongoliensis was a dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur (commonly referred to as a “raptor“) which lived in Mongolia during the late Cretaceous Period about 70 million years ago. Fragmentary remains were found during the 1970s, and it was officially named and… Read More ›

  • Cedrorestes

    Cedrorestes, which means “Cedar Mountain dweller”, was an ornithopod dinosaur which lived in Utah during the early Cretaceous Period. The fossils of this animal were discovered in eastern Utah in 2001. These were fragmentary remains consisting of pieces of ribs,… Read More ›

  • The Choristoderan of the Cedar Mountain Formation

    The Cedar Mountain Formation of eastern Utah contains rock layers dated to the early and middle Cretaceous Period, approximately 144-95 million years ago. Most of the fossils found here belong to medium-sized and large-sized dinosaurs, while fossils belonging to smaller… Read More ›

  • Dimorphodon

    Dimorphodon was a species of pterosaur that lived during the early Jurassic Period about 195-190 million years ago. It measured over 3 feet long from its nose to the end of its long tail (which may or may not have… Read More ›