Bones of the Earth

One of the most common misconceptions about dinosaurs is that there is no way of knowing what colour they were. This relates to the belief that the only evidence we have of prehistoric life is from fossilised bones. Neither of these statements is true, and one dinosaur in particular that highlights this is the rather iconic Sinosauropteryx prima . Hailing from the Yixian formation in China, a site famous for its exceptionally preserved Early Cretaceous dinosaurs, the first specimen was discovered in 1996 by amateur palaeontologist, Li Yumin, and sold to the National Geological Museum in Beijing. When images of the specimen had reached the United States, many Palaeontologists were excited by its discovery, including Dr John Ostrom, the man who arguably started the Dinosaur Renaissance in the 1960s with the discovery of Deinonychus antirrhopus (Chen et al, 1998). Looking at the holotype specimen, it is easy to see why this discovery caused so much excitement. Not only was Sinosauropteryx

A lot of the time, palaeontologists have to work with small fragmental puzzles in order to build a bigger picture of an organism. Many species of ancient life have been described based on minimal evidence, such as a few teeth or a fragmented femur. This is the case with most findings, as large impressive specimens that are mostly seen in museums are unfortunately the minority. This only makes larger fossils of complete or near-complete specimens all the more exciting. Examples of these larger near-complete specimens include some of the most iconic museum specimens in the world, such as Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex or Dippy the Diplodocus carnegii.  There is no doubt that these, amongst others, are some of the most impressive specimens in the world and have inspired millions of people worldwide. In my opinion, however, one of the most impressive near-complete dinosaur specimens in the world was named in 2017 and belongs to Borealopelta markmitchelli . Holotype specimen of  Borealopelta mar

A typical Theropod dinosaur fits a rather uniform description. They mostly had large skulls, relatively small forelimbs, and were the apex predators in most of the niches that they filled. However, like most trends in the natural world, there were exceptions. Perhaps the most extraordinary of these exceptions were the herbivorous Therizinosaurs, and more specifically the infamous Therizinosaurus cheloniformis . Therizinosaurus has etched its way into popular culture of late, being one of the star dinosaurs in the latest installment of the Jurassic World franchise, and getting its own segment in the well-received Prehistoric Planet  docuseries. It has quickly become one of the most iconic dinosaurs in mainstream media, however, it is easy to forget that it has actually been known about for quite some time, as the first specimen was named in 1954. Discovered by a team of Soviet geologists in one of the most important dinosaur fossil sites in the world, the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formati

The Mesozoic era is best known for being the time that the dinosaurs dominated the earth. It began 252 million years ago after the Permian extinction had killed 95% of all life on earth. The early Triassic era was therefore a time on earth that allowed many groups of animals to diversify and experiment, as there were niches to be filled that were not previously available. The most famous example of this is the beginning of the Dinosauria clade, which would become one of the most successful groups of animals to ever walk the earth. Away from Archosaurs, other reptile groups were also rapidly evolving, trying and ultimately failing to be the most successful group of animals on earth during the Mesozoic. One great example of this is one of the first known vertebrates to evolve wing membranes, the Sharovipteryx mirabilis . Only one known specimen has been found of this curious reptile, however, this highlights just how much we can find out given how limited the fossil record can be. The 22

66 million years ago, the K-Pg extinction event saw the end of the (non-avian) dinosaurs. This marked the beginning of the reign of mammals on earth, as they were able to diversify and evolve to fill almost all niches that were previously unattainable during the Mesozoic era. As with any trend in evolutionary biology, there are always outliers. Up until  ∼ 100,000 years ago, South America was ruled by a group of theropods, the Phorusrhacids, also known as the Terror Birds. A diverse group of birds, 18 species have been discovered so far, mostly in South America, an area that produced some of the Cenozoic's most astonishing animals, due to its isolation from the rest of the world up until the land bridge between North and South America was formed  ∼2.6ma (AZ Animals, 2020). The type specimen, belonging to Phorusracos longissimus , is of a fragmented mandible, equalling 60cm in length, and was discovered by Florentino Ameghino at the Santa Cruz formation, Patagonia in 1887. At first,

Palaeontology shows us a wide range of species that may not have even been imaginable had it not been for fossil evidence. The same could be said about some of the wonderful ocean life that lives on our planet even today. When looking at prehistoric wildlife, some of the wildlife that used to live in earth's oceans took incredible forms that would look out of place in our world today. Many of these animals are difficult to reconstruct even with fossil evidence that has been uncovered, and such has been the case with the Permian eugeneodont, Helicoprion . The signature feature of Helicoprion , the tooth-whorl, is what has made it difficult to reconstruct. Being a cartilaginous fish, the rest of the body is rarely preserved, so the tooth-whorl is the only evidence that exists of this fish. What has also made this so puzzling for reconstruction is the fact there is nothing alive today that resembles this feature, which makes it difficult to apply the theory of uniformitarianism; the i