All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
2 08, 2019

A Jinzhousaurus in Trouble – Tremendous Artwork

By |2023-12-26T15:36:59+00:00August 2nd, 2019|Adobe CS5, Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Drawings, Dinosaur Fans, Famous Figures, Main Page, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products|0 Comments

A Jinzhousaurus in Trouble

Continuing our occasional series, in which we post up illustrations from renowned palaeoartists, today, we feature a dramatic scene as depicted by the well-known Chinese artist Zhao Chuang.  An unfortunate Jinzhousaurus is being attacked by a flock of “raptors”.  The fast-running theropods will not find the Jinzhousaurus easy prey, Jinzhousaurus was strongly built and at over five metres long and weighing perhaps as much as three-quarters of a tonne, it was a formidable opponent.

Zhao Chuang’s Illustration of the Jinzhousaurus Attacked by Dromaeosaurids

Jinzhousaurus under attack from "raptors". An illustration by Zhao Chuang.
A Jinzhousaurus under attack from a flock of “raptors”.

Picture credit: Zhao Chuang (PNSO)

Jinzhousaurus yangi

Named and described in 2001, Jinzhousaurus (J. yangi) is known from an almost complete skeleton (including cranial material) from north-eastern China (Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province).  The exact taxonomic position of Jinzhousaurus remains controversial.  The skeletal material ascribed to this genus shows a mix of basal and more advanced characteristics.  At first it was thought that this ornithischian was related to the likes of Dollodon, Mantellodon from Europe and Bolong (B. yixianensis) from north-eastern China.  It was described as an iguanodontoid, however, more recent analysis places Jinzhousaurus as a member of the Hadrosauroidea Superfamily.

For models and replicas of ornithischian dinosaurs: Dinosaur Models and Figures.

Which Dromaeosaurid or Troodontid?

There is certainly no shortage of candidates as to which dromaeosaurid or troodontid might be depicted in this illustration.  The Maniraptora is well represented in these Early Cretaceous deposits.  However, as Jinzhousaurus is confined to the Dawangzhangzi Beds section of the Yixian Formation, this does narrow the field somewhat. It could be Sinornithosaurus, but as this genus is regarded as one of the smallest of the dromaeosaurids, then unless the Jinzhousaurus in the artwork is a juvenile, this seems unlikely.  It could be an as yet, unnamed member of the Maniraptora whose fossils have yet to be formally described.  Perhaps the attacking “raptors” are a flock of Zhenyuanlong dromaeosaurs.

An Illustration of the Early Cretaceous Dromaeosaurid Zhenyuanlong suni

Zhenyuanlong illustrated.
Very probably a ground-dwelling predator.  An illustration of the dromaeosaurid Zhenyuanlong suni.  This artwork was also created by the talented Chinese palaeoartist Zhao Chuang.

Picture credit: Zhao Chuang

Zhenyuanlong suni

Zhenyuanlong is one of several dromaeosaurid genera from Liaoning Province, for an article that compares these various dinosaurs and comments on whether they were ground-dwelling or otherwise: Updating the Winged Dragon.

To read an article about the scientific description of Zhenyuanlong suniNew Winged Dragon from Liaoning Province.

Although Zhenyuanlong was only recently named and scientifically described, there is already a prehistoric animal figure available that represents this dinosaur.  In fact, in the Beasts of the Mesozoic model series, there are two Zhenyuanlong figures available.  Our congratulations to the team behind these wonderful display pieces for being so quick off the mark when it comes to adding new dromaeosaurids to their “raptor” range.

Not One but Two Zhenyuanlong suni Figures are Available in the Beasts of the Mesozoic Range

Beasts of the Mesozoic "raptor" figures - Zhenyuanlong suni.
Beasts of the Mesozoic Zhenyuanlong suni “raptor” figures. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Zhenyuanlong figures and the rest of the splendid Beasts of the Mesozoic series: Beasts of the Mesozoic Prehistoric Animal Figures.

1 08, 2019

Cute and Cuddly Marsupial Had a Fearsome Fossil Relative

By |2023-12-26T15:31:28+00:00August 1st, 2019|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles, Photos/Pictures of Fossils|0 Comments

Sparassocynus – A Pliocene Predator

Scientists, including a researcher from the University of Salford (Manchester), writing in the academic publication the “Journal of Mammalian Evolution”, have shed further light on a predatory prehistoric marsupial from the Pliocene of South America.  Sparassocynus might be related to living short-tailed opossums, but unlike its extant relatives, Sparassocynus was not insectivorous, most likely, other small mammals were on the menu.

A Life Reconstruction of Sparassocynus

Sparassocynus life reconstruction.
A life reconstruction of Sparassocynus feeding on a small rodent.

Picture credit: Velizar Simeonovski

Sparassocynus derivatus

Living short-tailed opossums are cute and most are not much bigger than a squirrel, but these natives of South America had a bigger and ferocious fossil relative.  The joint British and Argentinian research team have shown that Sparassocynus, is an extinct carnivorous relative of today’s cute and cuddly short-tailed opossums.  The Sparassocynus genus has been known to science for over a hundred years, but its evolutionary position within the Didelphimorphia, that great clade of marsupials that includes the specious opossums and their relatives has been uncertain.  However, Dr Robin Beck, a mammal systematist at the University of Salford, in collaboration with Matías Taglioretti (Museo Municipal de Ciencias Naturales “Lorenzo Scaglia”, Argentina), have clarified its taxonomic position.

The pair of scientists focused their attention on a 4-million-year-old skull of Sparassocynus (Sparassocynus derivatus), that provided vital new information about this genus.  The skull was found in 2012 by Taglioretti and colleagues in a fossil deposit in cliffs along the Atlantic coast of Argentina, near the city of Mar del Plata (Playa Las Palomas).

Commenting on the significance of the skull fossil find Dr Beck stated:

“As soon as Matías showed me the skull, I knew it was really important.  It’s almost perfectly preserved, and it’s not fully grown [it still has its baby teeth], so it preserves a lot of features that are not visible in other specimens.”

The Juvenile Sparassocynus Skull Fossil (Lateral View)

Sparassocynus fossil skull.
Four-million-year-old skull of a Sparassocynus (S. derivatus) juvenile from the Chapadmalal Formation near Mar del Plata, Argentina.  Note scale bar = 1 cm.

Picture credit: Dr Robin Beck (University of Salford)

Comparing Anatomical Characteristics

By comparing over a hundred different anatomical characteristics, and incorporating DNA evidence from living species, Beck and Taglioretti showed that Sparassocynus is an extinct member of the opossum family and is most closely related to the much more cute and cuddly, insect-eating short-tailed opossums.

Dr Beck added:

“This might seem surprising because Sparassocynus was clearly a carnivore that would probably have eaten rodents and other small vertebrates, whereas short-tailed opossums are about five times smaller and mainly eat insects, but they share some unusual features that indicate a close relationship.”

The “Great American Biotic Interchange”

Sparassocynus survived in South America until about 2.5 million years ago, when it may have been driven extinct by the arrival of weasels from North America in what is known as the “Great American Biotic Interchange”, the land masses of North America and South America were finally united when the Panama land bridge became complete.  There are over a hundred species of opossum still alive today in South America, of which, twenty-four are short-tailed opossums.  Thankfully, none of these extant species are quite as ferocious as Sparassocynus would have been.

The scientific paper:

“A nearly complete juvenile skull of the marsupial Sparassocynus derivatus from the Pliocene of Argentina, the affinities of “sparassocynids” and the diversification of opossums (Marsupialia; Didelphimorphia; Didelphidae)” by RMD Beck and ML Taglioretti published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution.

Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of a press release from the University of Salford in the compilation of this article.

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