Postosuchus
“A Pachy… a pachy… oh, hell. Uh, the fathead with the bald spot. Friar Tuck!” – Roland Tembo Postosuchus (Crocodile from Post) was a basal archosaur that lived in what is now North America from the middle to the late Triassic. It was not a dinosaur, having a closer relationship to crocodilians, and was even […]
Pachycephalosaurus
“A Pachy… a pachy… oh, hell. Uh, the fathead with the bald spot. Friar Tuck!” – Roland Tembo Pachycephalosaurus is the last, largest, and most famous member of the pachycephalosaurs, or thick-headed dinosaurs. In the 1970s, paleontologist Peter Galton proposed that male pachycephalosaurs used their dome heads as battering rams, like bighorn sheep. The idea […]
Ornitholestes
“One chicken two chickens”— Paleontologist dog probably Ornitholestes was a small theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic Period in North America. The single existing specimen of Ornitholestes was found in Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming in 1900 and described by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1903. It consists of an almost complete skeleton and […]
Mussaurus
“It is small as a mouse!”—DR. Kajal Dua Mussaurus was a dinosaur lived in the Triassic Period, making it one of the earliest dinosaurs, and is believed to belong to the family of dinosaurs from which the huge sauropods eventually evolved. Mussaurus was unlike its huge descendants, however, as it was a small, fast plant-eater. […]
Minmi
“Minmi is a relatively small, armored herbivore from Cretaceous Australia. What sets this species apart from other members of its family are the horizontally orientated plates that run along the sides of its backbone – hence the binomial name, Minmi paravertebra.”—DR. Kajal Dua Minmi was a small member of the family of plant-eating armored dinosaurs […]
Majungasaurus
“I think they first found this dinosaur, the Majungasaurus, in Madagascar. And then they had to move it.”— Cabot Finch Majungasaurus (previously Majungatholus), was a medium sized abelisaur theropod from Madagascar. It was related to the better known and famous Carnotaurus. It was one of the few dinosaurs to show evidence of cannibalism. It has […]
Irritator
“This is so irritating to dig up. I just know the perfect name for this one”— The irritated paleontologist. Irritator was the first spinosaurid discovered in the Americas. It is from South America (specifically Brazil) moreover, which had been connected to Africa at this time. As the name suggests, something was irritating about Irritator. This […]
Herrerasaurus
“So what did you call those things that were chasing you? Hairy-saurauses?”“Herrerasaurus, from the Triassic era. Now that we’ve bred them we can easily classify them as early theropod.”— Richard Kiley talking about Dilophosaurus on the tour. Herrerasaurus (“[Victorino] Herrera’s lizard”) was one of the oldest and most primitive Theropods, or meat-eating dinosaurs, though in […]
Gasosaurus
“One of the earliest carnivores, we now know that Dilophosaurus is actually poisonous, spitting its venom at its prey, causing blindness and eventually paralysis, allowing the carnivore to eat at its leisure. This makes Dilophosaurus a beautiful, but deadly, addition to Jurassic Park.”— Richard Kiley talking about Dilophosaurus on the tour. Gasosaurus is a genus […]
Edmontosaurus
“Interesting… an Edmontosaurus. This is a herbivore that can move on all four feet, or go upright and walk on its hind quarters. We should be able to control and monitor this species more easily than some of the others. Use that to your advantage as you plan out the park.”—George Lambert Edmontosaurus was a […]