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 ›
reptile
Astrodon
If you were to ask people if they know a good place to find dinosaur bones, many of them would say “Go west, young man!” There is a lot of truth to this. There are vast areas of western North… Read More ›
Altispinax: The Mysterious Meat-Eater of Early Cretaceous England
Introduction There are many dinosaur species which have been identified based upon very scant remains, and this article concerns one of them: a meat-eating dinosaur named Altispinax dunkeri. If you’ve never heard of this animal before, you’re not alone. It’s… Read More ›
Brachiosaurus
There are some dinosaurs that everybody thinks of when they hear the word “dinosaur”. Among these is a very large sauropod which was the reptilian analog of a giraffe. I am, of course, talking about Brachiosaurus. Brachiosaurus is one of… Read More ›
List of Articles about the Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation of western North America is my favorite geological / paleontological formation to study. Within these rock layers, which are dated to the late Jurassic Period from approximately 157 to 147 million years ago, are found the fossils… Read More ›
Saurosuchus
Saurosuchus was a 20-foot pseudosuchian (a distant ancestor of crocodiles) which lived in Argentina during the middle Triassic Period about 230 million years ago. It was the largest carnivorous animal in its environment in terms of both length and weight,… Read More ›
Panphagia, the Oldest-Known Sauropodomorph Dinosaur
For decades, South America has been regarded by paleontologists as the place where dinosaurs originated. It is here that we have our clearest record of what the oldest dinosaurs looked like. Specifically, Brazil and Argentina hold the record for the… Read More ›
Fruitachampsa, the crocodile-bear-cat of the Morrison Formation
Meet the Jurassic Period’s analog of the common house cat. This is Fruitachampsa callisoni, a prehistoric reptile which inhabited western North America during the late Jurassic Period. However, this was not a dinosaur. In fact, Fruitachampsa was a distant relative… Read More ›
Pantosaurus
Hello everyone. Several years ago, I wrote a short article for Prehistoric Times magazine about the Sundance Sea. This was a shallow saltwater sea which covered much of central North America during the middle to late Jurassic Period. One of… Read More ›
Baptanodon
This is Baptanodon, an ichthyosaur which lived during the late Jurassic Period about 160-155 million years ago. During this time, the central part of North America was covered with a body of saltwater known as the Sundance Sea, and Baptanodon… Read More ›
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 