ApatosaurusApatosaurus (əˌpætəˈsɔːrəs; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, A. ajax, in 1877, and a second species, A. louisae, was discovered and named by William H. Holland in 1916. Apatosaurus lived about 152 to 151 million years ago (mya), during the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian age, and are now known from fossils in the Morrison Formation of modern-day Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Utah in the United States.
TriceratopsTriceratops (traɪˈsɛrətɒps ; three-horned face) is a genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 to 66 million years ago in what is now western North America. It was one of the last-known non-avian dinosaurs and lived until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. The name Triceratops, which literally means 'three-horned face', is derived from the Greek words trí- (τρί-) meaning 'three', kéras (κέρας) meaning 'horn', and ṓps (ὤψ) meaning 'face'.
KentrosaurusKentrosaurus (ˌkɛntroʊˈsɔːrəs ; prickle lizard) is a genus of stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic in Lindi Region of Tanzania. The type species is K. aethiopicus, named and described by German palaeontologist Edwin Hennig in 1915. Often thought to be a "primitive" member of the Stegosauria, several recent cladistic analyses find it as more derived than many other stegosaurs, and a close relative of Stegosaurus from the North American Morrison Formation within the Stegosauridae. Fossils of K.
Miragaia longicollumMiragaia (named after Miragaia, the parish in Portugal and geologic unit where its remains were found) is a long-necked stegosaurid dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in Upper Jurassic rocks in Portugal (Lourinhã Formation, Sobral Unit) and possibly also Wyoming, United States (Morrison Formation). Miragaia has the longest neck known for any stegosaurian, which included at least seventeen vertebrae. Miragaia is based on holotype ML 433, a nearly complete anterior half of a skeleton with partial skull (the first cranial material for a European stegosaurid).
HesperosaurusHesperosaurus (meaning "western lizard", from Classical Greek ἕσπερος (hesperos) "western" and σαυρος (sauros) "lizard") is a herbivorous stegosaurian dinosaur from the Kimmeridgian age of the Jurassic period, approximately 156 million years ago. Fossils of Hesperosaurus have been found in the state of Wyoming and Montana in the United States of America since 1985. The type species Hesperosaurus mjosi was named in 2001. It is from an older part of the Morrison Formation, and so a little older than other Morrison stegosaurs.
ScelidosaurusScelidosaurus (ˌsɛlᵻdoʊ-ˈsɔːrəs; with the intended meaning of "limb lizard", from Greek skelis/σκελίς meaning 'rib of beef' and sauros/σαυρος meaning 'lizard') is a genus of herbivorous armoured ornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic of the British Isles. Scelidosaurus lived during the Early Jurassic Period, during the Sinemurian to Pliensbachian stages around 191 million years ago. This genus and related genera at the time lived on the supercontinent Laurasia.
Physiology of dinosaursThe physiology of dinosaurs has historically been a controversial subject, particularly their thermoregulation. Recently, many new lines of evidence have been brought to bear on dinosaur physiology generally, including not only metabolic systems and thermoregulation, but on respiratory and cardiovascular systems as well. During the early years of dinosaur paleontology, it was widely considered that they were sluggish, cumbersome, and sprawling cold-blooded lizards.
ThagomizerA thagomizer (ˈθæɡəmaɪzər) is the distinctive arrangement of four spikes on the tails of stegosaurine dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators. The arrangement of spikes originally had no distinct name. Cartoonist Gary Larson invented the name "thagomizer" in 1982 as a joke in his comic strip The Far Side, and it was gradually adopted as an informal term sometimes used within scientific circles, research, and education. The term thagomizer was coined by Gary Larson in jest.
Carnegie Museum of Natural HistoryThe Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million specimens, the museum features one of the finest paleontological collections in the world. The museum consists of organized into 20 galleries as well as research, library, and office space. It holds some 22 million specimens, of which about 10,000 are on view at any given time and about 1 million are cataloged in online databases.
ParanthodonParanthodon (pəˈrænθədɒn ) is a genus of stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa during the Early Cretaceous, between 139 and 131 million years ago. Discovered in 1845, it was one of the first stegosaurians found. Its only remains, a partial skull, isolated teeth, and fragments of vertebrae, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon.
