Crétacé

Fossil specimen of early Cretaceous pterosaur Sinopterus dongi, which is collected from Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. The specimen (BMNHC Ph773) is a collection of Beijing Museum of Natural History and was on display in the National Museum of Natural Science (Taichung, Taiwan) during a special exhibition.

Fossil specimen of early Cretaceous pterosaur Sinopterus dongi, which is collected from Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. The specimen (BMNHC Ph773) is a collection of Beijing Museum of Natural History and was on display in the National Museum of Natural Science (Taichung, Taiwan) during a special exhibition.

Montanoceratops cerorhynchus (Brown & Schlaikjer, 1942) - fossil ceratopsian dinosaur skeleton from the Cretaceous of Montana, USA. (MOR 542, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, USA) The species name is sometimes incorrectly spelled "cerorhynchos". The original publication spells it "cerorhynchus". The genus name is sometimes incorrectly spelled "Montanaceratops". Ceratopsians are the "horned dinosaurs". They were large, quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs having a beaked skull and a frill - an extension of bone behind the skull that partially covered the neck. Ceratopsian dinosaurs are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. The last members of the group died out at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, 65 million years ago. This is a partial skeleton of a juvenile Montanoceratops, a ceratopsian from the near-latest Cretaceous of western North America. This type of ceratopsian lacked facial horns. From exhibit signage: Sixty-eight million years ago, when the horned dinosaurs Triceratops and Torosaurus inhabited the coastal plain near the inland ocean, primitive "horned" dinosaurs named Montanoceratops lived in uplands near the young Rocky Mountains. These little protoceratopsians fed on plants with slicing teeth and narrow beaks similar to their giant three-horned relatives. Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Reptilia, Archosauria, Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Marginocephalia, Ceratopsia, Leptoceratopsidae Stratigraphy: St. Mary River Formation, Maastrichtian Stage, Upper Cretaceous Locality: Little Rocky Coulee, north of the town of Cut Bank, eastern Glacier County, northwestern Montana, USA Info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanoceratops

Muttaburrasaurus The plants, animals and climate of the Australian continent have changed dramatically over long periods of time. Imagine this giant creature roaming the luxuriant wet forests that covered parts of the continent in the Cretaceous period, about 100-110 million years ago. The Muttaburrasaurus ambled along on all four legs or stood on its hind legs. Its large teeth were well adapted to eat tough vegetation such as the leathery foliage of the evergreen forests of Araucaria trees, ancient relatives of the bunya pine of south-eastern Queensland. In 1963, grazier Doug Langdon discovered the fossilised bones of a dinosaur on his property near Muttaburra in central-west Queensland. It was one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons found in Australia. The bones belonged to a new species of ornithopod and palaeontologists named it Muttaburrasaurus langdoni. Cast of Muttaburresaurus langdoni 1987 made by Queensland Museum, Brisbane National Museum of Australia

Azhdarcho sp., ZIN PH 56/43, distal fragment of a right ulna in proximal (a), ventral (b), posterior (c), dorsal (d), anterior (e), and distal (f, stereopair) views. This specimen is from the Tyulkili locality in the northeastern Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan; Zhirkindek Formation, Upper Cretaceous (upper Turonian – Coniacian). Abbreviations: das, dorsal articulation surface; ft, groove for flexor tendon; tub, tuberculum; vf, ventral fovea. Scale bar is 10 mm.

Dentary of Echinodon becklesii from the Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Formation of England. Left dentary (NHMUK 48215b) in lateral (A), medial (B), and dorsal (C) views.

Dentary of Echinodon becklesii from the Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Formation of England. Left dentary (NHMUK 48215b) in lateral (A), medial (B), and dorsal (C) views.

Comparison of cranial features between closely related southern Laramidian taxa; (A), Akainacephalus johnsoni (UMNH VP 20202) from the Late Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of Utah; and (B), Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis (SMP VP-900) from the Late Cretaceous Kirtland Formation of New Mexico, in left lateral views. Various synapomorphies are shared with N. kirtlandensis (highlighted in black and white arrows) and includes “flaring nostrils”; enlarged, laterally projecting, loreal osteoderms that are situated directly dorsal to the external nares. Other synapomorphies include pyramid-shaped nasal and frontal osteoderms positioned on the dorsal regions of the skull. A number of significant differences have been observed between both specimens; in A. johnsoni, the anterior, and posterior supraorbital bosses form an enlarged element that is somewhat backswept, whereas in N. kirtlandensis, the posterior and anterior supraorbital bosses are clearly defined as individual osteoderms, and are much smaller in size. Additionally, the squamosal horn in Akainacephalus is very small but is prominent and tetrahedrally shaped in Nodocephalosaurus. The quadratojugal horn in Akainacephalus is massive, has a subtriangular morphology in lateral view and projects almost entirely ventral, whereas in Nodocephalosaurus, the quadratojugal horn is smaller and has a typical fin-shaped morphology. Study sites: asob, anterior supraorbital boss; ext naris, external naris; laca, lacrimal caputegulum; loca, loreal caputegulum; naca, nasal caputegulae; orb, orbit; psob, posterior supraorbital boss; qjh, quadratojugal horn; sqh, squamosal horn.

Digital illustration of the Sauropod Dinosaur Isisaurus colberti from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of India (72.2-66 MYA). References include Jain & Bandyopadhyay (1997), several papers from Wilson et al. and skeletal reconstruction by Scott Hartman. Illustrated by Ansh Saxena. About Isisaurus– Isisaurus colberti (=Titanosaurus colberti) was a species of Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) age in the Indian Subcontinent. Isisaurus lived sympatrically with another Titanosaurian Sauropod Jainosaurus. It also lived alongside Theropods like Rajasaurus, Rahiolisaurus, Indosuchus etc. Remains of Isisaurus come from the Lameta formation of Central India.

Restoration of Asiaceratops salsopaludalis a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan

The titanosaurian sauropod Lirainosaurus astibiae Sanz, Powell, Le Loeuff, Martínez, and Pereda Suberbiola, 1999 from the Late Cretaceous of Laño (northern Spain), paratypic braincase (MCNA 7439). Right lateral, left lateral, posterior, and anterior views.

The nodosaurid dinosaur, Glyptodontopelta is mostly known from isolated osteoderms ("armor plates"). The specimen SMP VP-1580 (State Museum of Pennysylvania) is however, the most complete known specimen, comprising parts of the skull, hundreds of osteoderms and fragments. This specimen was discovered in 2003 by Warwick Fowler, in the Naashoibito Member of the Ojo Alamo Formation (Maatrichtian, Late Cretaceous) of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, during an expedition led by Dr. Robert Sullivan.

The skull of a Chasmosaurus mariscalensis, on display at the Texas Memorial Museum. Chasmosaurus was a Cretaceous ceratopsian of North America. This specimen was discovered in Brewster County, Texas.

Reconstruction of skeleton; Lower Cretaceous (120 mio. Years); Jungar Basin, China.

Reconstruction of skeleton; Lower Cretaceous (120 mio. Years); Jungar Basin, China.

Drawing of lectoholotype skull BMNH R.3386 (desigated by Weishampel et al., 1993)[1][2] of Limnosaurus transsylvanicus NOPCSA 1900 (later renamed Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus), a basal hadrosaurid dinosaur from the Late Maastrichtian (latest Upper Cretaceous) Sanpetru Formation of West Central Romania.