Arthropterygius, “jointed fin”, was a genus of ichthyosaur which lived in the Arctic Ocean during the Jurassic/Cretaceous transition period about 150 to 140 million years ago. Fossils of it have been found in Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia, and bones which… Read More ›
Semionotus was a genus of prehistoric fish which lived throughout the world during much of the Mesozoic Era. It was named by the famous Swiss ichthyologist and paleontologist Louis Agassiz in 1843 (type species: Semionotus bergeri). Semionotus first appeared during… Read More ›
The Cedar Mountain Formation of the western United States, which is dated to the early Cretaceous Period, has produced fossils of numerous dinosaur species. Several of these are still not officially classified, and this post concerns one of them. In… Read More ›
Greetings. A few days ago, I learned of a remarkable discovery. In east-central Utah within the rock layers of the Cedar Mountain Formation, dated to the early Cretaceous Period about 135 million years ago (the same time and place where… Read More ›
When people think of “armored dinosaurs”, they generally think of two kinds of creature: the stegosaurs and the ankylosaurs. Both of these groups belong to the dinosaur sub-order Thyreophora, which means “armor-bearing” in ancient Greek. The dinosaur group Ankylosauria or… Read More ›
Zephyrosaurus was a small ornithopod dinosaur which lived in Montana during the middle Cretaceous Period. The first fossils of this animal were discovered by Charles R. Schaff, who worked at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. Schaff was prospecting for… Read More ›
The skull of Deinonychus. This is the very first thing that appears on-screen in the first episode of the 1992 PBS documentary series The Dinosaurs! It’s a great series, by the way. You should watch it. Right now. Seriously. Get… Read More ›
In North America, dinosaur fossils are found in profusion in rocks dated to the late Triassic, late Jurassic, and late Cretaceous Periods. However, much of the rest of the Mesozoic Era’s time scale contains much sparser remains. The middle part… Read More ›
Most people who went to elementary school in the United States were given at least a cursory education in this country’s pre-colonial and colonial history. We learned about the so-called “Thirteen Colonies” which were owned by the British from the… Read More ›
Today the broad expanse of the Great Plains, which forms the central part of North America, is a vast area of farms, prairies, and deserts. Here, immense herds of buffalo once roamed and wild mustangs galloped. However, the land did… Read More ›
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 