NOTE: This article was originally posted on April 8, 2020. It was substantially updated on December 14, 2022. This is Dryosaurus, a 10 foot long plant-eating ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of western North America, and possibly… Read More ›
Ceratosaurus is an iconic dinosaur due to numerous physical attributes that distinguish it from other theropod species: the horn on the end of its nose, the massive teeth, the tiny hands with the four fingers, the wide tail, etc. However,… Read More ›
Introduction The sauropods are the definitive image of the dinosaur. Almost always, whenever one hears the word “dinosaur”, the image of the long-necked long-tailed four-legged behemoth is what immediately springs to mind. The sauropods were the dominant land herbivores during… Read More ›
Othnielia rex was a small ornithopod dinosaur found in the Morrison Formation, a famous geological formation spanning a large chunk of the western United States which is dated to the late Jurassic Period, 157-147 million years ago. It is here… Read More ›
Note: This article was originally published on August 31, 2019. It has since been substantially updated and re-published on September 19, 2024. The Morrison Formation of the western United States is one of the most famous deposits of late Jurassic… Read More ›
Harpactognathus was a rhamphorhynchid pterosaur which lived in the Morrison Formation of western North America during the late Jurassic Period. In 1996, the front of a pterosaur’s upper jaw was discovered at Bone Cabin Quarry, a famous fossil site in… Read More ›
This is a little-known theropod from the Morrison Formation named Coelurus. You don’t see Coelurus very often in Jurassic paleo-art, but I think it’s an interesting creature. It had a much thinner build than its Morrison coelurosaurid counterpart, Ornitholestes, and… Read More ›
Back in 2013, I posted a picture of the 25 foot long pliosaur known as Megalneusaurus, which swam in a shallow sea that once covered the central part of North America during the middle and late Jurassic Period. The illustration… Read More ›
The image of Nature “red in tooth and claw” is a compelling vision which appeals to the popular imagination. Time and again, paleo-art illustrations depict dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals actively engaged in fighting, hunting, and killing. It’s a well-known… Read More ›
Greetings all. Every child with a rough grasp of what life was like in Late Jurassic North America probably knows the Morrison Formation’s main characters. If such a child were to be asked to name the meat-eaters from that formation,… Read More ›
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 