Description: Darwinopterus (Darwin’s Wing) was a pterosaur found in China that lived during the Middle-Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago. Despite being much smaller than it’s later cousins,only having about a 3 foot wingspan, it is an important speciment as it represents a possible transition between early long-tailed pterosaurs like Rhamphorhynchus and later short-tailed flyers like Pteranodon. Because of this transitional status it was named after the famous biologist and author of the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin.
Description: Dear reader, From as far back as I can remember, I have never met a mammal quite as refined as Sir Chalicotherium goldfussi III. The epitome of class and aristocracy, he comes from a long line of odd-toed ungulates who’s legacy stretches back to the pliocene famous for their leaf eating skills, Sir goldfussi is no exception. His elegantly manicured claws are the envy of the plains and his top-hat is the height of fashion wear among high society. You will never find a mammal with a more amiable demeanor or affinity for picking leaves of trees. Yours sincerely, Lord Goupilictis minor
Description: A trilobite found in deposits near Saint Petersburg Russia. It first appeared on the fossil record about 500 million years ago, and died out around 390 million years ago, it was discovered around 1845. Sadly there isn’t as much specific info on this one, but there are more than 20,000 currently identified Trilobite species, and not all of them has as much info as others.
Description: Roughly 153 to 148 million years ago a vicious predator stalked the sun bleached grasslands and loosely populated conifer forests of Late Jurassic Colorado. As a mid-sized predator, measuring in at around 23 feet in length, with a weight estimated between 1500 and 2100 pounds, it would have been formidable hunter, most likely preying on whatever herbivorous fauna that it could sink its teeth into.
Description: Roughly 216 to 196 million years ago in Triassic New Mexico, close to a thousand dinosaurs died, their remains preserved as fossils that would later be discovered in 1947 by Edwin H. Colbert and his assistant George Whitaker on a site appropriately known as the Ghost Ranch. It’s extremely rare in paleontology that scientists are handed such a find, a buffet of death that allows them to piece together the biology of a specific species in such a complete manner.
Description: Around 66 million years ago, in Late Cretaceous South Dakota, an odd bird-like creature darted it’s way through the thick overgrowth of a humid, swampy, coastal plain near the coast of an inland sea that only only exists now in the form of trace elements of chemical signatures, rock strata, and the fossil remains of the animals that lived and died on its shores and below its waves.
Description: Final for Carnotaurus sastrei. A farely large predatory dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (72 – 69.9 million years ago), it is mostly defined by it’s short bulldog like skull sporting 2 large horns mounted on it’s brow just above the eyes. The bull-like placement of the horns were not lost on the scientist who discovered it, José Bonaparte, deriving it’s name from the Latin words meaning “meat-eating bull.”
Description: Akylosaurus, it’s name means the “fused lizard.” This big guy was the largest known member of a group of the most heavily armored dinosaurs ever to have lived, most of it’s body was covered in large osteoderms (bony hard scales, or plates), this armor was so impenetrable that some scientists think that they might have had armored eye lids. Ankylosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous at around 68 to 66 million years ago. The largest specimens found to date probably weight in at a maximum of 4.4 – 7.9 tons, and sported a large tail weapon (or club) that could be up to around 2 feet wide and could easily shatter bone, easily able to shatter the leg bones of big predators like Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Description: Discovered in 1903 by paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in the Colorado River Valley, Brachiosaurus (it’s name meaning “Arm Lizard” because of it’s proportionately longer front limbs) roamed what would become North America during the Late Jurassic about 154 to 153 million years ago. With a length in the upper estimates of 69 feet and a possible 64 tons in weight it was a large animal, though it was not by far the largest the clade of sauropods would get.
Description: Arthropleaura was an ancient ancestor to modern millipedes. There were many species, some measuring less than a foot and others growing up to around 8 feet in length, making them some of the largest Arthropods (invertebrates with exoskeletons such as insects, spiders, scorpions, and trilobites) to have ever lived.
Description: I present Amargasaurus cazaui, (meaning “La Amarga lizard”) a sauropod that roamed in what is now Argentina during the Early Cretaceous period, about 129.4 to 122.46 million years ago. Though it was not the larges sauropod in environment, or it’s genera within the overall family (Dicraeosauridae), it was definitely one of the weirdest dinosaurs ever discovered. Amargasaurus distinguished itself from other Sauropods by sporting 2 rows of bony spines that ran along it’s neck, scientists have speculated as to the purpose of this adaptation by proposing everything from them supporting body heat regulating sails, being percussive instruments, a means of defense, and a way to attract mates and recognize their species.
Description: First described in 1877 at the height of the “Bone Wars” by Othneil Charles Marsh, Allosaurus was one of the most successful and wide spread predators of the Late Jurassic Period (approximately 155-150 million years ago) with most of it’s remains being found the Morrison Formation in Western North America and related specimens having been found as far away as Portugal, and possibly as far off as Tanzania. Allosaurus was named from the Greek for “different lizard” because of a trait found in the central parts of it’s vertebrae which had a concave cup-like shape on the back end of it’s surface.
Description: Smilodon (or 2-edged knife tooth) is better known as the famous saber-toothed cat, it is an extinct species of large cat common to the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch, from 2.5 million years to 10,000 years ago. There were three species, S. gracilis (weighing in at around 120-220lbs), S. fatalis (350-620lbs), and a South American species S. populator (490-880lbs). All saber-toothed cats were defined by their distinctive long canine teeth measuring around 11 inches in length, which they used in hunting large herbivores like bison, camels, and small horses, and even mammoths.
Description: Styracosaurus (or “spiked lizard”) was a member of the ceretopsian family of dinosaurs. Though somewhat smaller than it’s much more famous relative Triceratops, it made up for it’s lack of size in the number of horns it had covering it’s face with one long central horn jutting from it’s nose and at least 4 or more long frill spines protruding from the crest on the back of it’s skull. The spines most likely had a variety of purposes, from defense, to attracting a mate, to species recognition. Styracosaurus was a hervivore and lived during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 75.5 to 75 million years ago, in what would eventually become North America ranging from Alberta, Canada to what would eventually be Montana in the United States.
Description: Parasaurolophus (or “near crested lizard”) was a hadrosaur, or duck billed dinosaur that lived in North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, roughly 76.5–73 million years ago. They traveled in large herds and bore a large crest on their heads that scientists believed served a dual purpose with both a species recognition symbol and as an acoustic resonance chamber. The hollow sections of the crest likely allowed them to let out range of loud noises to signal many things like sounding a warning for the rest of the herd to know that a predator is near by and to attract mates.
Description: Plesiosaurus (or “Near to lizard,” a reference to it’s closeness to modern reptiles) was not a dinosaur but a marine reptile that swam in the oceans of the Early Jurassic Period, about 199.6 to 175.6 million years ago. It and other members of it’s family were often distinguished by their long necks with some later related species having necks longer than their bodies. It is thought that they used their necks to catch fish and other prey items by snaking their relatively small neck through the water to snag an unsuspecting meal, because the distance of their larger bodies would obscure their real size and not panic the prey as much, this might explain why later species had much longer necks.
