Cryptoclidus was a 15 foot long plesiosaur which inhabited the prehistoric Tethys Sea, which once covered much of Europe, during the middle of the Jurassic Period 165-160 million years ago. Fossils of Cryptoclidus have been found within southern England and… Read More ›
paleontology
Leptostyrax
Leptostyrax was a genus of prehistoric sand tiger shark measuring an impressive 20 feet long which lived in the oceans around North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia during the Cretaceous Period approximately 125-75 million years ago. Leptostyrax has a long… Read More ›
Radiodactylus
During the Mesozoic Era, dinosaurs ruled the land, but their flying cousins the pterosaurs ruled the sky. They first appeared during the late Triassic Period about 210 million years ago, and persisted until the reign of the reptiles came to… Read More ›
Acrocanthosaurus
Acrocanthosaurus, meaning “high-spined lizard”, was a large 35 foot long meat-eating dinosaur which lived in North America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 115-110 million years ago. It is distinctive for the unusually tall neural spines on the… Read More ›
Leucichthyops
Leucichthyops vagans was a species of prehistoric salmonid fish which lived in what’s now western North America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 100 million years ago. The species was named in 1919 by Theodore D. A. Cockerell,… Read More ›
Erythrinolepis
Erythrinolepis was a prehistoric freshwater fish which lived in western North America during the middle to late Cretaceous Period approximately 100-66 million years ago. The name Erythrinolepis was coined by the paleontologist Theodore D. A. Cockerell in 1919. The name… Read More ›
Kelmayisaurus
Kelmayisaurus was an obscure species of large meat-eating dinosaur which lived in northwestern China (the region sometimes referred to as Uyghurstan) during the early to middle Cretaceous Period 130-120 million years ago. In 1964, fossils belonging to several dinosaur species… Read More ›
Dakosaurus
There were numerous kinds of marine reptiles which swam in the oceans during the Mesozoic Era, including the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs. Less well known are the marine crocodilians, or more accurately, crocodylomorphs. These animals are known as the thalattosuchians,… Read More ›
Orthacanthus
Orthacanthus, meaning “straight spine”, was a 10 foot long freshwater shark-like fish which lived during the late Carboniferous Period and early Permian Period roughly 315-275 million years ago. The genus Orthacanthus is divided into twelve different species, two of which… Read More ›
Pliosaurus
We all know that dinosaurs walked the earth in prehistoric times, and many of us are also aware that pterosaurs flew across the skies and fearsome marine reptiles swam in the oceans. Some of these marine reptiles (which weren’t dinosaurs,… Read More ›