New evidence from rock strata in Utah and Wyoming suggests that some species of dinosaurs might have dwindled on for as many as 500,000 years after the Chicxulub impact event supposedly wiped them out. Though this may not mean much, it does offer credence to theories of extant dinosaurs throughout the world.
No, not the German criminal. Schinderhannes bartelsi may soon prove to be one of the more important fossil discoveries in arthropod science. Schinderhannes might be no different from any other anomalocarid - if it hadn't lived 100 million years after its close relatives had supposedly died out. While it was presumed for some time that the Anomalocarididae had gone extinct at the end of the Cambrian, about 510 or so million years ago, the 390 million-year-old Schinderhannes dates from the end of the Devonian. Additionally, it offers some odd clues to arthropod evolution - it seems to be transitional between anomalocarids and true arthropods. Though scientists still don't know quite what to make of this, it remains an interesting species nonetheless. As seen in the picture above, this genera has a body similar to that of trilobites and other early arthropods, but a head and mouth almost identical to those of Anomalocaris, as well as hard protrusions similar to those of Hurdia, another Cambrian anomalocarid.
Scientists currently consider it very unlikely that Alamosaurus sanjuanensis will be host to a battle between Texan soldiers and the Mexican Army, so visiting a mounted skeleton in a museum is probably perfectly safe. In all seriousness, though, this Upper Cretaceous titanosaur (southern long-necks; last known sauropods) was actually not named after the Alamo in San Antonio, but after the Ojo Alamo Formation in New Mexico. Confusing, huh? This sauropod is the only known titanosaur to have occured in North America, as most members of that group of sauropods are known only from localities which were once part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, such as South America, Africa, India, Madagascar, and southern Europe, though some forms have also been found in Asia. This dinosaur was named by Gilmore in 1922, and played a confusing game of taxonomical hopscotch before finally being placed with the titanosaurs.
A strange name for a strange dinosaur - Nedoceratops hatcheri, formerly "Diceratops hatcheri", was renamed in 2007 by Ukrainsky, the former name having been coined by Richard Swan Lull. This poor ceratopsian (Triceratops and its ilk) was yet another incident of a dinosaur's name being changed, the name having been occupied by a bug (yes, a bug. See also, Dryptosaurus, Mononykus), in this case those pesky hymenoptera (assorted oddball bugs including bees and ants). Though on first inspection it is quite similar to its close cousin Triceratops (in fact, some scientists think that Nedoceratops is the closest relative of the more famous ceratopsid), this species differs from its larger, more popular relative by the fact that rather than a nose horn, it has a rounded lump similar to that found on the primitive ceratopsian Zuniceratops.
from the Upper Cretaceous of Alabama. This tyrannosaurid (T. rex's dysfunctional, extended family) is one of the most complete dinosaurs known from the American South. This 23-foot (7 metres, for our cousins across the pond and every other country on the planet) tyrannosaur was named by Thomas Carr (et. al) in 2005, and probably preyed upon and ate hadrosaurs and other herbivores, probably stopping to scavenge some dinosaur corpses along the way. Considering that it lived near the coast, there's also the possibility it could have taken to a seafood diet, maybe scavenging beached mosasaurs of plesiosaurs (not exactly fine cuisine).
No, this dinosaur has never been known to raid Tokyo. No, it probably would not take an Oxygen Destroyer to kill. But that certainly is the image that Kenneth Carpenter wanted to elicit when he named this dinosaur in 1997; Gojirasaurus quayi named for the big G himself, is the largest coelophysid (early, primitive theropod) currently known to science (don't confuse with largest coelophysoid, Dilophosaurus). This 18-foot dinosaur probably wasn't as fast as its smaller cousin Coelophysis, but it was still probably a rather fast, formidable hunter.... No, no atomic beams, either.
the odd hadrosaur (duckbilled dinosaur); discovered in the Amur region of Russia, and described in 2003 by Pascal Godefroit (et al.). It is the most complete lambeosaurine (crested hadrosaur) known at present from outside of North America. Some of its more famous relatives include Parasaurolophus, Corythosaurus, and Lambeosaurus. Its most distinguishing feature is its crest, which takes on a shape unlike that of any other lambeosaur, and its strange appearance has caused scientists to wonder just how diverse the hadrosaurs really were.
Thought I only had a dinosaur fetish? Don't think I'd forget our Cenozoic buddies, the extinct mammals. I love those guys! This one in particular: Uintatherium anceps. This dinoceratian (a group of large, extinct mammals, presumably hairless) mammal lived during the middle of the Eocene Epoch in the Paleogene Period (formerly the Tertiary) of North America. This big guy was first discovered at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, and was named by famed paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1872. Its six horns were apparently used as a display to the opposite sex, and the tusks in its mouth would have been useful for detering hyaenodont predators, a variety of carnivorous mammals from the same time and locality. The above picture was painted around 1920 by Heinrich Harder.
