It would not be until the end-Triassic extinction event that occurred 201 million years ago that dinosaurs would finally get their chance.

For the most part, this book delivered everything I was looking for. The book is organized first by period (Triassic, Cretaceous, Jurrasic) and then by type of dinosaur (Sauropods, Ornithopods, Armor, Theropods, etc.) which was a neat way of seeing the different variety in the same family (like the Triceratopses and Ankylosaurs). In each brief description, there is information about the naming of the dinosaurs, where it has been discovered, and its scientific etymology. The models were then applied to the unidentified, isolated teeth, which found that most of the teeth belonged to maniraptorans, and dromaeosaurids in particular. These teeth were split into three distinct groups based on their size and shape.Spicomellus is the oldest known ankylosaur and the first found in Africa. It’s also a creature with no known analogue, living or dead. “If you feel your own ribs, there’s muscles over the top of them that allow your arms to move,” says Susannah Maidment, the paleontologist at London’s Natural History Museum who led the research on Spicomellus. “What were they doing with their muscles when their ribs clearly had spikes above the skin?” For many, the Natural History Museum is a place that inspires learning, gives purpose and provides hope. People tell us they 'still get shivers walking through the front door', and thank us for inspiring the next generation of scientists. To reverse the damage we've done and protect the future, we need the knowledge that comes from scientific discovery. Understanding and protecting life on our planet is the greatest scientific challenge of our age. And you can help. Tlatolophus galorum is a type of herbivorous dinosaur called a lambeosaur. The dinosaur is so named because its dramatic crest resembles the tlahtolli, a comma-like symbol in Aztec art that stands for “word” in the Nahuatl language. The species name galorum combines two family names, Garza and López, to honor people who aided with the fossil’s collection.

That fossil, described in April, is the second dinosaur from Japan that lived during the Maastricthian age, which lasted from 72 million until 66 million years ago—right up until the asteroid-driven extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period. The dinosaur, Yamatosaurus izanagii, is named for an ancient term for part of the Japanese archipelago, as well as Izanagi, a deity in Japanese mythology. As many as 2.5 billion T. rex individuals existed over the last 2.5 million years of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), before the dinosaur-killing asteroid collided with Earth. Researchers looked at all kinds of factors to determine this number, including the dinosaur king's population density, habitat size, generation time and total number of generations, according to a study published in April in the journal Science. However it came to be buried, being underground protected it from scavengers. This ensured it is one of the best preserved alvarezsaurids from this period, greatly improving our understanding of their anatomy and ecology.’ What fills this gap is still not known, but may include the 240-million-year-old partial fossil of an animal called Nyasasaurus parringtoni, discovered in Tanzania near Lake Nyasa in the 1930s.Though they’re not directly related to birds, the alvarezsaurids continue to fascinate due to their unusual characteristics – most peculiarly of all, their hands. Stegouros also fills in an important evolutionary gap. Very few armored dinosaurs have been found within the lands that once made up Gondwana, an ancient supercontinent that started breaking apart during the age of dinosaurs. Before Stegouros, only two armored dinosaurs had been found in what was once southern Gondwana, and neither is as complete as the newly described animal. 8-9. Two huge dinosaurs found in China’s pterosaur gold mine Megan Jacobs is no stranger to finding fossils. She’s a lifelong collector and the co-founder of the fossil hunting experience company Wight Coast Fossils.

Simon Wills, a PhD student at the Museum who led the research, says, 'Previous research had suggested that the maniraptorans were around in the Middle Jurassic, but the actual fossil evidence was patchy and disputed. Along with fossils found elsewhere, this research suggests the group had already achieved a global distribution by this time.'Illustration of the breeding ground of a herd of Mussaurus patagonicus, showing differently-aged individuals, including newborns in nests, young dinosaurs and fully-grown adults in what is now Patagonia. (Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez)