HalszkaraptorHalszkaraptor (ˈhɑːlʃkəræptər; meaning "Halszka's seizer") is a genus of waterfowl-like dromaeosaurid dinosaurs from Mongolia that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. It contains only one known species, Halszkaraptor escuilliei. The type specimen (holotype) has been compared to the bones of extant crocodilians and aquatic birds, and found evidence of a semiaquatic lifestyle, while some researchers question about semiaquatic ecology. A phylogenetic analysis revealed it was a member of the basal subfamily Halszkaraptorinae, along with Mahakala and Hulsanpes.
Neck frillA neck frill is the relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles with either a bony support such as those present on the skulls of dinosaurs of the suborder Marginocephalia or a cartilaginous one as in the frill-necked lizard. In technical terms, the bone-supported frill is composed of an enlarged parietal bone flanked by elongated squamosals and sometimes ringed by epoccipitals, bony knobs that gave the margin a jagged appearance. In the early 1900s, the parietal bone was known among paleontologists as the dermosupraoccipital.
Timeline of tyrannosaur researchThis timeline of tyrannosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the tyrannosaurs, a group of predatory theropod dinosaurs that began as small, long-armed bird-like creatures with elaborate cranial ornamentation but achieved apex predator status during the Late Cretaceous as their arms shrank and body size expanded. Although formally trained scientists did not begin to study tyrannosaur fossils until the , these remains may have been discovered by Native Americans and interpreted through a mythological lens.
GigantothermyGigantothermy (sometimes called ectothermic homeothermy or inertial homeothermy) is a phenomenon with significance in biology and paleontology, whereby large, bulky ectothermic animals are more easily able to maintain a constant, relatively high body temperature than smaller animals by virtue of their smaller surface-area-to-volume ratio. A bigger animal has proportionately less of its body close to the outside environment than a smaller animal of otherwise similar shape, and so it gains heat from, or loses heat to, the environment much more slowly.
QianzhousaurusQianzhousaurus (meaning "Qianzhou lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period. There is currently only one species named, the type species Qianzhousaurus sinensis, which is a member of the tribe Alioramini and most closely related to Alioramus, the only other known alioramin. The holotype specimen, GM F10004, was unearthed in southern China, Ganzhou, at the Nanxiong Formation in the summer of 2010 during the construction of an industrial park and it was first described by paleontologists Junchang Lü, Laiping Yi, Stephen L.
AgathaumasAgathaumas (æɡəˈθɔːməs; "great wonder") is a dubious genus of a large ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in Wyoming during the Late Cretaceous (late Maastrichtian stage, 66 million years ago). The name comes from αγαν - 'much' and θαυμα - 'wonder'. It is estimated to have been long and weighed , and was seen as the largest land animal known at the time of its discovery. It was the first ceratopsian known to science from more than teeth, though relatively little is known about it.