Acamptonectes densus was a 4 meter (13 foot) long ichthyosaur which swam in the seas around western Europe during the early Cretaceous Period 131-129 million years ago. The first specimen was found in the seaside village of Speeton, Yorkshire, England… Read More ›
Cretaceous Period
Goniopholis: The Typical Mesozoic Crocodile
Dinosaurs ruled the land during the Mesozoic Era, but crocodiles and their relatives unquestionably ruled the water. Prehistoric crocodiles are usually relegated to the background as supporting actors or extras in our imagined Mesozoic dramas, but the truth is that… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 6 foot long 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… 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 ›
Conchoraptor
Conchoraptor, meaning “shell robber”, was a small bird-like dinosaur barely measuring 5 feet long. Its fossils were discovered in 1971 within the rocks of the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia, but they were believed to belong to its more well-known relative… Read More ›