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  Borealo...