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Spinosaurus has been placed within a secure containment square, lest he cause wanton destruction and chaos. Now he's just swimming

Zuul was discovered on a dig in the Montana Badlands in 2014, during the excavation of what was thought to be Gorgosaurus, an early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that stalked North America roughly 76.6 to 75.1 million years ago. While it was initially thought to be a specimen of another ankylosaur called Euplocephalus that had been known to science since 1897 known to live in the same area at the same time, research done at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada would later identify the specimen as belonging to an as yet unknown genus of armored dinosaur. The specimen was given the genus name of Zuul, after the horned monster dog from the classic 1984 film, Ghostbusters, and the species name of crurivastator meaning “Destroyer of Shins.”

In 1598 Dutch sailors landed on the shores of Maritius looking for supplies during an expedition to Indonesia, while on the island they encountered a large, odd looking, flightless bird. According to the surviving translations of that first account the birds were somewhat tasteless, leading to their discoverers initially calling them Walghvogel (Dutch for “tastelss” or “sickly” “bird”). The origin of the name Dodo is somewhat nebulous, but it’s possible that it may have it’s routes in the word Dodaars, meaning “fat-arse” or “knot-arse.”

A rogues gallery of some of the greatest predators to have dwelt in our planet's oceans. Seeing how big and toothy life used to be makes one grateful that these creatures are not alive today... though there are those who would claim these monsters still lurk in our seas; it is not like anyone who encountered them would live to tell the tale after all...

Baryonyx, meaning "heavy claw", was one of the first spinosaurs discovered that gave us a more complete look at this strange group of theropods

Known from only a skull, the rest of Irritator's appearance remains a mystery. Its anatomy here is a rough guess based on its close relative Spinosaurus.

This depiction of a Pterodactylus is based on an 1800s illustration from the book "La Terre Avant le Deluge" illustrated by Edouard Riou. I've recreated his original illustration in my own digital block print style, simplifying it to just the swooping Pterodactyl and its soon to be snack dragonfly.

A Dilophosaurus wetherilli packed into a compact square design! He's comfortable in there it's fine

This "alien-horned face" was a medium-sized ceratopsian that is poorly-known, but had a very unique head horn formation

In the 1920s Captain Marshall Field funded two expeditions to South America which were undertaken by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois; these expeditions were launched under the hopes of finding fossils of mammals and other animals from the Cenozoic Era. In 1926, during the second expedition, a team was searching the Ituzaingo Formation in northern Argentina when they came across the remains of three animals thought to be never before discovered species of ancient marsupial. It was roughly 4.9 feet in length and weighed around 330 pounds and it lived during the Late Miocene to Pliocene, roughly 9 to 3 million years ago.

Possibly one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, Stegosaurus was named in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh during the “Bone Wars,” becoming the flagship genus of the entire Stegosaur group. The name Stegosaurus means “roofed” or “covered lizard,” as Marsh initially thought the back plates formed a roof-like shell over the animal’s back. There are 3 species currently described: S. ungulatus, S. sulcatus, and S. stenops (stenops being the longest species yet discovered at 29.5 feet).

Identified in 1796 by naturalist Georges Cuvier, the Woolly Mammoth has become the symbol of what most people think of when they think of Ice Age animals. Its huge fur covered form feel strange and ancient, like some behemoth marching its way out of the frozen genetic memory of human kind to remind us of how far we have come. Mammuthus primigenius was big, with the largest recorded males measuring about 11.2 feet at the shoulder and weighing in at 6.6 tons. Females were smaller with shorter tusks, but both were relatively close to the size of modern African Elephants, though they were obviously much harrier and more robust in appearance.

dino hatching

The "short-necked shepherd" is one of the more bizarre sauropods out there, a diplodocoid with an extremely short neck that might have been an adaptation for low browsing

Allosaurus - One of the apex predator in the late Jurassic, located in the North America region.

Utahceratops was one of the largest ceratopsian, with an enormous frill that was probably used for display

Named after its curved devil-like horns, Diabloceratops is a medium-sized ceratopsian from the late Cretaceous of Utah

A Mongolian titanosaur with a mouthful of a name, Opisthocoelicaudia was found without a head and neck, so its close relative Nemegtosaurus is used as a reference for its head.

Ichthyovenator, meaning "fish hunter", with its bizarre sail shape, is the most complete spinosaurid specimen from Asia.

Yutyrannus huali lived in what is now China during the Early Cretaceous (124.6 million years ago). An early relative to the famed T.rex, it is known from three nearly complete fossil skeletons that were found together and show a surprising amount of detail, including the presence of a feathered covering over most of their bodies. At adulthood Y. huali measured at around 29.5 feet in length and weighed in at about 1.2 tons, making it the largest dinosaur yet discovered with direct evidence of feathers.

n what would eventually become the Gobi Desert in Southwestern Mongolia, a creature with claws 3 times the length of the average human forearm. These massive scythe-like appendages were attached to a very odd looking member of the dinosaur family, a large theropod with an unusual gait, long neck, and a large potbelly built. This animal was most likely an herbivore, despite the vicious looking nature of it’s forelimbs, but being a big animal with short legs it’s likely that it developed big claws partly as a means to defend itself against big predators like Tarbosaurus bataar, a relative of T.rex that stalked Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous (70 million years ago).

Spinosaurus, meaning "spine reptile", was the first spinosaur ever discovered. Its fossils were destroyed in WWII, but new discoveries are revealing that its appearance was weirder than anyone imagined!

One of the earliest ceratopsians, the colours on this drawing are based on real data from a beautifully preserved fossil from China

Discovered in the Gobi desert, Velociraptor was roughly the size of a modern day Turkey, standing at just around 1.6 feet in height at the hip and measuring 6.8 feet in length, it likely only weighed around 33 pounds when fully grown. Like all members of the dromaeosauridae family it possessed a pair of specialized claws on the second inner toe of each foot. These claws were over-sized and were held off the ground by tendons that allowed them to retract when not in use, it’s thought they deployed this menacing weaponry as a means to pin struggling prey, much like modern day eagles and hawks do.

One of my favourite tyrannosaurs, Bistahieversor! Its name means "Bistahi destroyer", and it was probably more light on its feet than its larger cousin Tyrannosaurus!

An unnamed species of spinosaur from Thailand, that may be closely related to Ichthyovenator

Parasaurolophus (or “near crested lizard”) was a hadrosaur, or duck billed dinosaur that lived in North America and Asia during the Late Cretaceous Period, roughly 76.5–73 million years ago. They traveled in large herds and bore a large crest on their heads that scientists believed served a dual purpose with both a species recognition symbol and as an acoustic resonance chamber. The hollow sections of the crest likely allowed them to let out range of loud noises to signal many things like sounding a warning for the rest of the herd to know that a predator is near by and to attract mates.

Sinosauropteryx was a small theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Northeast China during the Early Cretaceous (124.6 to 122 million years ago). At only 3.5 ft in length and 1.2 lb in weight, it wasn't the most imposing of predators, being roughly the same size and weight as a modern pheasant. It mostly fed on small mammals and reptiles, with one fossil showing the nearly complete remains of a lizard swallowed whole some time before the little dinosaur died, being buried quickly in a layer of volcanic ash and silt. S. prima was the first dinosaur to have fossil pigment cells examined with new techniques, scientists have determined the color and pattern of it's feathers, including a banded ring tail, shown in this reconstruction.

Ursus spelaeus, otherwise known as the Cave Bear, was a species of bear that ranged throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene in the last major Ice Age event, roughly 25,000 to 24,000 years ago. They were one of the largest species of Ice Age bears with big males standing upright at 11.5 feet and weighing in at a maximum estimated weight of around 2,200 pounds. Females were considerably smaller, the largest specimens being estimated at 550 pounds. Despite their immense size evidence shows that they most likely fed on an herbivorous diet. There is direct evidence of a possible predator prey relationship between Cave Bears and Neanderthals and other early hominid species, including cave paintings, and evidence of butchering.

Say hello to your new friend Tullimonstrum

Deinonychus remains were first discovered by Barnum Brown in 1931 near Billings, Montana; however, because it’s remains were encased in Lime and thus difficult to prepare Brown payed more attention to the remains of a large plant eater that was found nearby. It wasn’t until many decades later that John Ostrom recognized that the remains Brown had discovered belonged to an animal he had described in 1969 as Deinonychus antirrhopus. Deinonychus was a member of a group called Dromaeosaurids, who were defined by being swift moving predators with stiff tails, sharp sickle-like claws on their feet, they came in many sizes, from as small as a 2 feet in length to animals like Utahraptor reaching lengths of up to 36 feet.

Galeamopus, meaning "needs a helmet", is a genus of diplodocid only recently named from century-old fossils, and is the most complete diplodocid specimen ever found!

Yutyrannus huali was a basal member of the Tyrannosauroid clade, specifically part of the Proceratosauridae family group with other small bodied crested dinosaurs like Guanlong and Sinotyrannus. Yutyrannus was large for it’s group but still much smaller than later, more advanced members of it’s clade, like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Despite this, at roughly 30 feet it is still currently the largest dinosaur yet found with direct evidence of feathers. It’s name is in fact derived from the Mandarin word for feather, yǔ (羽), and the Greek word for tyrant. The species name huali is taken from Mandarin for beautiful, making it’s overall name mean something close to “beautiful feathered tyrant.”

Pencil drawing of a dilophosaurus skull.

A land dwelling prehistoric relative of modern day crocodiles described scientifically in 1959, head to tail it measured some 23 feet in length and weighed over 1,000 pounds. It roamed what would eventually become known by humans as North Western Argentina, and it shared its environment with a wide variety of other creatures, such as early dinosaurs like Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor, as well as massive dicynodonts like Ischigualastia, Pound for pound it appears to have been the largest predator in the region it inhabited, but this weight and its likely cold-blooded metabolism likely slowed it down. Despite this it was more than fast enough to catch up with prey of that era.

Baryonyx walkeri was theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now Surrey, England. At nearly 30 feet in length and weighing in at around 1.9 tons it was a big animal, but despite its size fossil evidence of fish scales in its abdominal cavity suggest that rather than going after large prey items on land it most likely relied on fish for the bulk of its diet. This and other anatomical evidence actually made it the first theropod dinosaur ever known to have relied on a primarily ichthyophagous diet.