Total Dino

What's your favorite dinosaur?

[totaldino]

Spicomellus

Spicomellus was a request from Dan West, a Cretaceous tier member on Patreon!

Spicomellus is the earliest known ankylosaurian dinosaur, and has forced paleontologists to rethink many aspects of the group, including distribution, lifestyle, and evolutionary trends. Striking features include the meter long spikes fused directly to the skeleton, and evidence of a tail weapon existing before the ankylosaurid/nodosaurid split.

[totaldino]

Astrodon

Happy 250th birthday, America!

Astrodon is a large sauropod dinosaur known from Maryland and Washington D.C. in what is now the eastern United States. From its fragmentary remains, it is known to be a macronarian sauropod, and was herbivorous with a long neck and four columnar legs. Size estimates vary, but it is thought to reach around 20 in total body length.

[totaldino]

Supersaurus

Supersaurus was a request from Jurassic tier patron “MrOldFusspot” on Patreon!

Supersaurus is the longest known dinosaur with some estimates exceeding 40 m in total body length. A diplodocid sauropod, it had a horizontal posture with its counterbalancing tail accounting for much of its length. Supersaurus had peg-like teeth adapted for stripping vegetation to be processed in the gut, rather than chewing.

[totaldino]

Camptosaurus

Camptosaurus was a request from Dan West, a Cretaceous tier member on Patreon!

Camptosaurus is an early member of the iguanodontia - the group of herbivorous dinosaurs that contains the more derived hadrosaurs. It was robust and bipedal, growing to around 6 m in total body length, and weighing approximately 1 t. Camptosaurus had a beaked snout and tightly packed teeth to process its diet of tough vegetation.

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Cryolophosaurus

Cryolophosaurus was a request from Cretaceous tier patron Jac Conte on Patreon!

Cryolophosaurus was one of the largest theropods of its time, and the apex predator among its Antarctic ecosystem. It had a slender build and grew to approximately 7 m in length. Cryolophosaurus had narrow snout, and is notable for the crest running perpendicular across its skull, rather than along the length of it, as is common in related theropods.

[totaldino]

Abrosaurus

Abrosaurus is a basal macronarian sauropod dinosaur known from an exceptionally well preserved skull. Like all sauropods, it was a quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck. It had a boxy head, a typical trait of macronarians, topped with a bony arch that supported the nostrils. Abrosaurus was small by sauropod standards, at just 9 m in total body length.

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Stellasaurus

Happy Star Wars Day!

Stellasaurus is a centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that grew to about 6 m in length and weighed around 2 t in body mass. It was a quadrupedal herbivore with a large beak and batteries of teeth for processing vegetation. Stellasaurus had long spikes protruding from its crest, typical of centrosaurines, as well as a unique nasal horn that curved back toward its face.

[totaldino]

Lishulong

Lishulong is a basal sauropodomorph from the Early Jurassic. Typical of the sauropodomorphs of that time, Lishulong was a bipedal herbivore with a proportionately small head atop a long neck. Its teeth and neck suggest it likely fed on both ground-level and mid-height vegetation. Lishulong measured around 11 m in length, and weighed about 3 t.

[totaldino]

Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburrasaurus was a request from Cretaceous tier patron Jac Conte on Patreon!

Originally thought to be an iguanodontid, Muttaburrasaurus has been reclassified as an elasmarian. This fully bipedal group of ornithopod dinosaurs sits outside the iguanodontia, lacking the characteristic dental batteries. This classification makes Muttaburrasaurus the largest elasmarian dinosaur at approximately 8 m in length, and weighing around 3 t.

[totaldino]

Uriash

Uriash is a European titanosaur with evolutionary affinities to those from the southern continent of Gondwana. Its discovery strengthened the hypothesis that titanosaurs spread from the south in the Early Cretaceous. Small for a titanosaur, Uriash is one of the largest known from the European archipelago at about 10 m in length, and weighing 5-8 t in body mass.

[totaldino]

Oviraptor

Oviraptor was originally discovered with a fossilized nest, and it was assumed that it fed on the eggs. However, it was later determined that it was an Oviraptor nest. Fossils like this provided insight into dinosaur parenting habits. Oviraptor is estimated at 1.5-2 m in length, and weighed around 35 kg. It was covered in feathers, and had a parrot-like toothless beak.

[totaldino]

Dimetrodon

Dimetrodon is a basal synapsid and represented the apex predator niche of its Permian ecosystem. It was notable for the large sail on its back, which may have been used for thermoregulation or courtship display. Dimetrodon was a quadrupedal carnivore with varying lengths of teeth, owing to its name, and reached 2-4 m in total body length.

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Yanbeilong

Yanbeilong is one of the most recent stegosaurians, being from the Cretaceous while the majority went extinct in the Jurassic. It is closely related to Stegosaurus itself, and likely had two rows of large plates running down its back and the length of the tail, ending in long spikes. It also whould have had a long narrow skull, and longer hindlimbs than forelimbs.

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Ardetosaurus

Sauropods are large quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs known for their long necks. Ardetosaurus is a diplodocid sauropod estimated to have grown to around 18 m in length. Typical of diplodocids, Ardetosaurus had an extremely long whip-like tail to balance its long neck. Diplodocids are also characterized by their thin pencil-like teeth.

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Olorotitan

Olorotitan was a request from Cretaceous tier patron “MrOldFusspot” on Patreon!

Olorotitan is a large lambeosaurine hadrosaur that can be identified by its distinct hatchet-shaped crest. It had the longest neck of any known hadrosaur, containing 18 vertebrae. Comparable in size to other lambeosaurines, Olorotitan grew to about 8 m long, and weighed around 3 t in total body mass.

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Sarcosaurus

Sarcosaurus was a request from Cretaceous tier patron Jac Conte on Patreon!

Sarcosaurus is a basal theropod, and one of the earliest Jurassic dinosaurs from the islands of Britain and Ireland. Small compared to later theropods of the Cretaceous, it represented the resilience of early theropods as dinosaurs rose to dominance throughout the Mesozoic. Sarcosaurus was a significant predator in its ecosystem, reaching approximately 3.5 m in total body length.

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Baryonyx

Baryonyx was a request from Cretaceous tier patron “MrOldFusspot” on Patreon!

Baryonyx is a spinosaurid theropod, named for the large claw on the animal's first finger, which measures about 30 cm along its curve. It is estimated to have been between 8 and 10 m long and weighed around 1.5 t. Baryonyx was the first theropod dinosaur known to have been piscivorous, as evidenced by fish scales in the stomach region of the holotype specimen.