Dinosaur renaissanceThe dinosaur renaissance was a small-scale scientific revolution that started in the late 1960s and led to renewed academic and popular interest in dinosaurs. It was sparked by new discoveries and research indicating that dinosaurs may have been active and warm-blooded animals, rather than cold-blooded and sluggish as had been the prevailing view and description during the first half of the twentieth century.
AnkylosaurusAnkylosaurus is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the non-avian dinosaurs. It was named by Barnum Brown in 1908; it is monotypic, containing only A. magniventris. The generic name means "fused" or "bent lizard", and the specific name means "great belly". A handful of specimens have been excavated to date, but a complete skeleton has not been discovered.
ManiraptoriformesManiraptoriformes is a clade of dinosaurs with pennaceous feathers and wings that contains ornithomimosaurs and maniraptorans. This group was named by Thomas Holtz, who defined it as "the most recent common ancestor of Ornithomimus and birds, and all descendants of that common ancestor." Many fossils have been discovered in recent years, particularly in China. Many of the feathered dinosaurs belong to this clade. In particular, a fossil of the Alvarezsauridae Shuvuuia has a version of keratin consistent with that of avian feathers.
Dilong paradoxusDilong (帝龍, which means 'emperor dragon') is a genus of basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur. The only species in this genus is Dilong paradoxus. It is from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation near Lujiatun, Beipiao, in the western Liaoning province of China. It lived about 126 million years ago. This theropod discovery was significant as it was one of the first tyrannosauroids with fossil evidence of simple feathers. Dilong was described by Xu Xing and colleagues in 2004.
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.
Yixian FormationThe Yixian Formation (; formerly transcribed as Yihsien Formation) is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans the late Barremian and early Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It is known for its exquisitely preserved fossils, and is mainly composed of basalts interspersed with siliciclastic sediments. The potential importance of the Yixian Formation was initially recognized during the time the Empire of Japan occupied China's Rehe ("Jehol") Province after the First battle of Hopei in 1933.
AublysodonAublysodon (“backwards-flowing tooth") is a genus of carnivorous dinosaurs known only from the Judith River Formation in Montana, which has been dated to the late Campanian age of the late Cretaceous period (about 75 million years ago). The only currently recognized species, Aublysodon mirandus, was named by paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1868. It is sometimes considered dubious now, because the type specimen consists only of an isolated premaxillary (front) tooth.
Avulsion fractureAn avulsion fracture is a bone fracture which occurs when a fragment of bone tears away from the main mass of bone as a result of physical trauma. This can occur at the ligament by the application of forces external to the body (such as a fall or pull) or at the tendon by a muscular contraction that is stronger than the forces holding the bone together. Generally muscular avulsion is prevented by the neurological limitations placed on muscle contractions.
NeovenatorNeovenator (nee-o-ven-a-tor meaning "new hunter") is a genus of carcharodontosaurian theropod dinosaur. It is known from several skeletons found in the Early Cretaceous (Barremian~130-125 million years ago) Wessex Formation on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, southern England. It is one of the best known theropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of Europe. The first bones of Neovenator were discovered in the summer of 1978, when a storm made part of the Grange Chine collapse.
AlamosaurusAlamosaurus (ˌæləmoʊˈsɔːrəs; meaning "Ojo Alamo lizard") is a genus of opisthocoelicaudiine titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs containing a single known species, Alamosaurus sanjuanensis, from the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now southwestern North America. Isolated vertebrae and limb bones indicate that it reached sizes comparable to Argentinosaurus and Puertasaurus, which would make it the absolute largest dinosaur known from North America.
