Coelurosauravus

Coelurosauravus (meaning "hollow lizard grandfather") is a genus of basal diapsid reptile that lived during the Upper Permian (Lopingian) period in Northern Europe - Germany, England and Madagascar. It had specialised wing-like structures allowing it to glide. These were rod like structures with skin stretched over them. These bony rods are not extensions of the ribs but are newly evolved dermal bones, a feature which is unique to the genus.The average length of the specimens was 40 centimetres and the body was long and flat, suitable for gliding. The skull was lizard-like with a pointed snout and contained a broad back with a serrated crest, superficially resembling the crests of ceratopsian dinosaurs.  

Dimorphodon

 Dimorphodon  was a genus  of medium-sized pterosaur from the early Jurassic Period. It was named by palaeontologist Richard Owen in 1859. Dimorphodon means "two-form tooth", derived from Greek ‘di’  meaning 'two', morphe meaning 'shape' and ‘odon’ meaning 'tooth', referring to the fact that it had two distinct types of teeth in its jaws - which is comparatively rare among reptiles. The body structure of Dimorphodon displays many primitive characteristics, such as a very small brain-pan and proportionally short wings. The first phalanx in its flight finger is only slightly longer than its lower arm. Its neck was short but strong and flexible and may have had a membranous pouch on the underside. The vertebrae had pneumatic foramina, openings through which the air sacks could reach the hollow interior. The Dimorphodon had an adult body length of 1 metre long, with a 1.45 metre wingspan. Its tail was long and consisted of thirty vertebrae. The first five or six were short and flexible, but the remainder gradually increased in length and were stiffened by elongated vertebral processes.

The smart troodon

The troödon was a fast-moving, intelligent, meat-eating dinosaur.  It lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 76-65 million years ago. The  Troodon had a relatively large brain, and a surprisingly small head with an elongated skull, and one very long toe claw. It was about 2-3.5m long and weighed about 50kg. The long tail acted as a counterbalance and as a stabilizer during fast turns. The Troodon was a carnivore (a meat eater). It probably ate just about anything it could slash and tear apart with its sharp teeth and with its long-clawed fingers and toes. It was first discovered by Ferdinand V. Hayden in 1855.  Troodon fossils have been found in North America (US states of Montana, Wyoming, and Canadian province of Alberta).

Diprotodon (rhinoceros-sized wombat)

Archaeologists have uncovered teeth from the extinct Diprotodon, a giant wombat-like marsupial, at Lancefield swamp north of Melbourne.

The Dipratodon was was the biggest marsupial that ever lived and was about the size of a rhino.

The teeth found are quite long (40mm) and wide. The fossils are dated between 50,000 to 80,000 years old from an animal that probably 'got bogged'.

Fossils were first located at the swamp in the 19th century, and there were previous digs at the site in the early 1990s, 2004/5. These animals are unusual with there meat shearing teeth. Todays wombats eat roots and the stems of leaves. 

T=Rex stars in Minions

Minions\

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is a character seen at the beginning of the film Minions, it was the first master of the Minions after the tribe's landing. 

The story goes that after the Minions left the sea, a T. Rex rushed an Amphibian creature at the beach, the last master of Minions in the ocean, so the Minions regarded T. Rex at their new master. Soon, many Minions climbed on the T. Rex's body and remaining Minions followed it, which made it pleased about these new creatures it found.

Two Minions found a banana tree under a large rock and one of them picked a banana, which triggered the rock rolling down from the hill and brought the T. Rex to the edge of a lava pit. At last, thanks to one of the falling Minions bumped into the rock, it fell into the lava so the Minions left for new master.

In the post-credit, its appearance scares away all characters from the stage, except young Gru. The dinosaur roars and Gru finally notices it, and he tries to shoot it by the Freeze Ray but the weapon jams.

Trivia

The dinosaur can be seen again in a commercial video for GoPro based of the The Secret Life of Pets; in the video, Sweetpea flies in front of the television which is playing a scene with an alley full of hung clothes, and he hides himself into his cage when he sees the T-Rex dinosaur.

Manny

 

New Dinosaur from Uzbekistan timurlengia euotica.

A new species of tyrannosaur has been discovered in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.  The fossils found are believed to be dated to 90 to 92 million years old, in the Cretaceous period. This early tyrannosaur, which has been named Timurlengia euotica was a close cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex and its discovery may hold the key to explaining how its infamous big cousin went on to become such fearsome predators and reach such massive sizes (12 metres in length and weighing a colossal 6.8 tonnes). It would have weighed between 170 to 270 kilograms, would have been about the size of a horse, but covered in a mixture of skin and feathers.

It was a nimble pursuit hunter and would have chased down its prey before making short work of them with its slender razor sharp teeth, highly suitable for slicing through meat. It probably preyed on the various large plant-eaters, especially early duck-billed dinosaurs, which shared its world.

From just a handful of fossilised bones and a well preserved brain case, palaeontologist’s have been able to build a picture of the Timurlengia  euotica.

 Researchers believe that the animal marks an evolutionary turning point for the tyrannosaurs, where the keen senses and brainpower of the top hunters were developed and refined.  Analysis of its brain casing showed it had already developed inner ear structures which would have enabled it to hear lower frequencies, an advantage for top predators when it came to hearing prey and rivals.  It shows that the advanced brain and senses of the colossal later Cretaceous apex predator T. rex were were already present in the Late Jurassic, more than 90 million years ago. 

However, the sinuses of Timurlengia were seen to be much simpler than their later cousin - whose heightened sense of smell would have helped it to find prey - hinting that the tyrannosaurs had not yet finished evolving all of the master hunter's attributes. As the animals are on a separate branch of the tyrannosaur family tree, it would also indicate that the these attributes developed in a common ancestor even further back, before splitting off.