Life Through Geologic Time

Microceratus

Microceratus was an early Ceratopsian dinosaur, and was one of the earliest ceratopsian dinosaurs, along with Psittacosaurus (you know, that guy that was recently discovered with the spines(Which I should have done instead, it would have been much easier to get images.)). It was found in Asia, and, like many early dinosaurs, was bipedal. It was an herbivorous, like all ceratopsian dinosaurs, and it likely fed on ferns, cycads, and conifers, which were the predominant vegetation in the area. Its original name was Microceratops gobiensis, and was first described in 1953, but the generic name was already occupied by an ichneumon wasp, of all things. Many specimens have since been reassigned to Graciliceratops, however, the name Microceratus was proposed for the type specimen in 2008 and has stuck with it.

Okay, so it was really hard to get this drawing, and I could not find any fossil images, I’m sorry. Image is copyright of DeAgostini.

rhamphotheca:

Erliansaurus bellamanus

… a therizinosauroid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China. Erliansaurus was a bipedal herbivore. For a therizinosauroid, its neck was rather short. The tibia was relatively long. Its fibula had an uncommon form, with a very high front edge and a concave top. Its hands bore enormous, strongly recurved and pointed, claws of which the thumb claw was the largest…

 (read more: Wikipedia)    (image: FunkMonk)

* I’m sure there are many that would take issue with the liberties of FunkMonk’s reconstruction, but I’m going with it.   :3

rhamphotheca:

New Raptor Dinosaur Used Giant Claw to Pin, Slash Prey?

by Christine Dell’Amore

Talk about a lucky break—paleontologists have found “incredibly rare” fossils of a new species of raptor dinosaur that severely fractured its giant-clawed foot about 76 million years ago, paleontologists say. The six-foot-long (two-meter-long) Talos sampsonsi lived in the rainy, “hothouse world” of late-Cretaceous North America, which was then two continents—Laramidia in the west and Appalachia in the east—divided by a shallow seaway.

It’s one of the few troodontid theropods—small, birdlike predators—ever discovered in North America, said study leader Lindsay Zanno, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. 

Perhaps most exciting about Talos is its injured second toe, which has added to an existing debate on what troodontids did with the giant, sickle-like claw on that toe, study leader Zanno said. Paleontologists have offered opposing explanations for the claw, for example that it helped troodontids climb, acted as a weapon in killing prey or fighting foes, or even enabled the dinosaur to clean itself…

 (read more: National Geo)  

(image: Jorge Gonzales, Utah Museum of Natural History)

Sauropelta (Shielded Lizard), not to be confused with Scutosaurus, was a nodosaurid, a heavily armoured, quadrepedal, herbivore, and yes, a dinosaur, related to ankylosaurus. With its body covered in hard, boney plates (osteoderms) and with speacialized ones that came to a point on Sauropelta’s neck, it was a formidable creature.  It’s tail could have been comprised of as many as fifty vertebrae and made up half of its body length.There were some fundamental differences between it and other nodosaurids, though. Its legs were longer, meaning that it was likely capable of a jog of sorts, and it didn’t have a clubbed tail.

Scutosaurus (Shield Reptile), not to be confused with Sauropelta was a large, armoured, herbivorous pareiasaur, which is a synapsid that lived in the Permian with stocky bodies, short tails, and highly sculpted and adorned skulls. That’s right, synapsid, not dinosaur. Learn more about synapsids with my here. Scutosaurus is found in the Russian Permian beds, with some found standing, suggesting that they got stuck in mud or swamps while feeding. It was likely aquatic, but being that many fossils have been found mired in mud, it may be unlikely. Unlike most reptiles, Scutosaurus held its legs beneath it to support its great weight, rather than side sprawling, only endothermic vertebrates are known to do this today. It likely had well developed hearing due to a slender bone found in its ear.

Libonectes (Southwest Swimmer) was a very long-necked plieosaur, known as an elasmosaur (a group of marine animals from the creatcious with four strong paddle-shaped limbs that lived in the sea.)  An early fossil hunter thought that libonectes’s head was originally the tail of another fossil, then it was thought that their necks could move much like a snake’s body, but they are actually relatively rigid, much like those of sauropods.  There were 62 bones in its long neck, which accounted for over half of its body length. Libonectes likely swam after shoals of fish and attacked from underneath to trap them in its cage like mouth. Its teeth were long, sharp, forward facing, and interlinked forming said cage for trapping its unfortunate prey.

Mononykus (single claw, so named for its single digit fore-limbs) is amazingly closely related to birds, and yet, is still a theropod dinosaur. It roamed open desert plains, and, because of its light, hollow bones, fossil specimens are frustratingly incomplete. It had large, keen eyes, and, as such, is likely to have been (at least) partially nocturnal. It had strong legs, making it a swift predator, and it likely fed on plants as well as lizards and insects. Those arms! That finger! What could they have been used for? Paleontologists speculate that Mononykus used those surprisingly muscular arms and fingers to break open termite mounds in search of food, rather than for snatching prey or digging.