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Sinornithosaurus (derived from a combination of Latin and Greek, meaning ‘Chinese bird-lizard’) is a genus of feathered dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period (early Aptian) of the Yixian Formation in what is now China. It was the fifth non–avian feathered dinosaur genus discovered by 1999. The original specimen was collected from the Sihetun locality of western Liaoning. It was found in the Jianshangou beds of the Yixian Formation, dated to 124.5 million years ago. Additional specimens have been found in the younger Dawangzhangzi bed, dating to around 122 million years ago.

Sinosauropteryx (meaning “Chinese reptilian wing”, Chinese: 中华龙鸟; pinyin: Zhōnghuá lóng niǎo; literally: “China dragon bird”) is a compsognathid dinosaur. Described in 1996, it was the first dinosaur taxon outside of Avialae (birds and their immediate relatives) to be found with evidence of feathers. It was covered with a coat of very simple filament-like feathers. Structures that indicate colouration have also been preserved in some of its feathers, which makes Sinosauropteryx the first non-avialian dinosaurs where colouration has been determined. The colouration includes a reddish and light banded tail. Some contention has arisen with an alternative interpretation of the filamentous impression as remains of collagen fibres, but this has not been widely accepted.

Scutellosaurus is an genus of thyreophoran ornithischian dinosaur that lived approximately 196 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Arizona, USA. It is classified in Thyreophora, the armoured dinosaurs; its closest relatives may have been Emausaurus and Scelidosaurus, another armored dinosaur which was mainly a quadrupedal dinosaur, unlike bipedal Scutellosaurus. It is one of the earliest representatives of the armored dinosaurs and the basalmost form discovered to date. Scutellosaurus was a small, lighly-built, ground-dwelling, herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1.2 m (3.9 ft) long.

Pachyrhinosaurus (meaning “thick-nosed lizard”) is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period of North America. The first examples were discovered by Charles M. Sternberg in Alberta, Canada, in 1946, and named in 1950. Over a dozen partial skulls and a large assortment of other fossils from various species have been found in Alberta and Alaska. A great number were not available for study until the 1980s, resulting in a relatively recent increase of interest in the Pachyrhinosaurus. Three species have been identified. P. lakustai, from the Wapiti Formation, the bonebed horizon of which is roughly equivalent age to the upper Bearpaw and lower Horseshoe Canyon Formations, is known to have existed from about 73.5-72.5 million years ago. P. canadensis is younger, known only from the lower Horseshoe Canyon Formation, about 71.5-71 Ma ago. Fossils of the youngest species, P. perotorum, have been recovered from the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska, and date to 70-69 million years ago. The presence of three known species makes this genus the most speciose among the centrosaurines.

QUICK PACHYRHINOSAURUS FACTS

• May have run as fast as 20 MPH

• Lived in parts of Canada and Alaska

• Its name means “thick nosed lizard”

• 3 species of this dinosaur have been discovered

• Weighed as much as a Black Rhinoceros

ABOUT PACHYRHINOSAURUS

Pachyrhinosaurus is a dinosaur which lived around 70 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period. It was first discovered in the late 1940s by Charles M. Sternberg, son of famous paleontologists Charles H. Sternberg who found specimens in Alberta, Canada and Alaska, U.S. He also named the fossil, calling it Pachyrhinosaurus—a name which means “thick nosed lizard.”

Pachyrhinosaurus was an herbivore that was approximately 20 to 26 feet long, about 6 feet high and weighed around 2 to 3 tons. Like other dinosaur’s in this dinosaur order, the Pachyrhinosaurus had a large bony frill that came out of the back of its skull. However, what makes this dinosaur different from the other ones in it dinosaur classification is that instead of horns on its nose it had a large bony bump called a “boss.” It did have a pair of horns that grew out of the top of its frill and it may have had horns over its eyes.

Like other herbivores of this time, the Pachyrhinosaurus probably traveled in herds that kept it safe from predators. Paleontologists believe that some of these herds may have had hundreds or thousands of animals in it at one time. If this was indeed the case, then it would have made it quite difficult on predators. It is also likely that these dinosaurs also nested their eggs like modern birds and may have even taken care of them. This has been found to be the case in other dinosaur types such as the Protoceratops and the Styracosaurus.

Paleontologists believe this animal probably lived off of a diet that consisted mainly of palms and cycads and other tough plant material that it could tear off and crush with its beak. It also had cheek teeth that it could use to further masticate this tough plant material, making it easier to digest.

Anchiceratops is an genus of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that lived approximately 72 to 71 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Alberta, Canada. Anchiceratops was a medium-sized, heavily built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore that could grow up to an estimated 5 m (16.4 ft) long. Its skull featured two long brow horns and a short horn on the nose. The skull frill was elongated and rectangular, its edges adorned by coarse triangular projections. About a dozen skulls of the genus have been found.

Anchiceratops was a medium-sized ceratopsid. If specimen NMC 8547 is not taken into account, no very exact estimations of the body length of Anchiceratops can be given. Some popular science book state that it approached 20 feet (6 m) in length. In 2010 Gregory S. Paul, on the assumption that specimen NMC 8547 represented Anchiceratops, estimated its length at 4.3 metres, its weight at 1.2 tonnes.

The first remains of Anchiceratops were discovered along the Red Deer River in the Canadian province of Alberta in 1912 by an expedition led by Barnum Brown. The holotype, specimen AMNH 5251, is the back half of a skull, including the long frill, and two other partial skulls, specimens AMNH 5259 (the paratype) and AMNH 5273, were found at the same time, which are now stored in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A complete skull designated NMC 8535, was discovered by Charles M. Sternberg at Morrin in 1924, and was described as A. longirostris five years later, in 1929. but this species is widely considered a junior synonym of A. ornatus today. In total, at least ten incomplete skulls have been recovered. The skulls are different with respect to their proportions (e.g. size of the supraorbital horn cores, the dimensions of the frill) which had led researchers to conclude that the disparity is a result of interspecific differences or due to sexual dimorphism.

The most distinctive features of this dinosaur are in its unusual neck frill. The frill is moderately long and rectangular with small, oval fenestrae (openings). The edge of the frill is thick just behind the brow horns. On the back of the frill are six large epoccipitals (bony knobs around the frill) that were expanded into short, triangular, backward-pointing spikes. Also on the frill are two short spikes that curve up and out.

Anchiceratops had a short nasal horn, a very long nose, and two moderate-size brow horns. Its skeleton shows it had a very short tail, but otherwise it looked much like other ceratopsids.

Anchiceratops lived at the same time as its close relative Arrhinoceratops. It was also closely related to Torosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Pentaceratops, and Triceratops.

Styracosaurus is a member of the Centrosaurinae. Other members of the clade include Centrosaurus (from which the group takes its name), Pachyrhinosaurus, Avaceratops, Einiosaurus, Albertaceratops, Achelousaurus, Brachyceratops, and Monoclonius, although these last two are dubious. Because of the variation between species and even individual specimens of centrosaurines, there has been much debate over which genera and species are valid, particularly whether Centrosaurusand/or Monoclonius are valid genera, undiagnosable, or possibly members of the opposite sex. In 1996, Peter Dodson found enough variation between Centrosaurus, Styracosaurus, and Monoclonius to warrant separate genera, and that Styracosaurusresembled Centrosaurus more closely than either resembled Monoclonius. Dodson also believed one species of Monoclonius, M. nasicornis, may actually have been a female Styracosaurus. However, most other researchers have not accepted Monoclonius nasicornis as a female Styracosaurus, instead regarding it as a synonym of Centrosaurus apertus. While sexual dimorphism has been proposed for an earlier ceratopsian, Protoceratops, there is no firm evidence for sexual dimorphism in any ceratopsid.

Styracosaurus is known from the Dinosaur Park Formation, and was a member of a diverse and well-documented fauna of prehistoric animals that included horned relatives such as Centrosaurus and Chasmosaurus, duckbills such as Prosaurolophus, Lambeosaurus, Gryposaurus, Corythosaurus, and Parasaurolophus, tyrannosaurids Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and armored Edmontonia and Euoplocephalus.

Torosaurus is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur that lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Cretaceous period, between 68 and 66 million years ago. Its name means “perforated lizard” in reference to the large openings in its frill. Fossils have been discovered across the Western Interior of North America, from Saskatchewan to southern Texas.

Tuojiangosaurus (meaning “Tuo River lizard”) is a genus of herbivorous stegosaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period, recovered from the Upper Shaximiao Formation of what is now Sichuan Province in China.

Troodon is a dubious genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs known definitively from the Campanian age of the Cretaceous period (about 77 mya). It includes at least one species, Troodon formosus, known from Montana. Discovered in October 1855, T. formosus was among the first dinosaurs found in North America, although it was thought to be a lizard until 1877. Several well-known troodontid specimens from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta were once believed to be members of this genus. However, recent analyses in 2017 have found the genus to be undiagnostic and referred some of these specimens to the genus Stenonychosaurus (long believed to be synonymous with Troodon) and others to the newly created genus Latenivenatrix.

The genus name is Greek for "wounding tooth", referring to the teeth, which were different from those of most other theropods known at the time of their discovery. The teeth bear prominent, apically oriented serrations. These "wounding" serrations, however, are morphometrically more similar to those of herbivorous reptiles, and suggest a possibly omnivorous diet.