"the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts."
~Richard Owen, 1859
Those were the words of Richard Owen when he first described Thylacoleo carnifex more commonly called the Marsupial Lion. No one had ever seen something like it, its bizarre anatomy stupefied many a paleontologist. Many were baffled as to what it ate and how it functioned. Some said it would have eaten meat and was suggested to be anywhere from an egg-eater to a super-predator. Others thought its dentition was closer to a herbivore and suggested it ate plants. It would not be until more than a century later that scientists would better understand this animal.
Tail Regeneration in Steneosaurus bollensis by Shaochilong66, journal
Tail Regeneration in Steneosaurus bollensis
While researching the absolute hell that is Steneosaurus (there are nearly 60 named species why) I stumbled upon an old German paper in the biodiversity library. After a bit of translating, I realized that it was about Steneosaurus tail tip regeneration. This is not exactly a rare occurrence, having been documented in two living crocodilians: Black and common caimans.
As can be seen here they use two living species of Crocodillian:the Black Caiman and the Spectacled Caiman.Although it's not figured with amazing quality there is the specimen itself too, SMNS Inv-Nr, 51555.
Kalin (1937) describes pathologies in several crocodilians. One of
Phytosaurs Part 1 (Terrestial Lads) by Shaochilong66, journal
Phytosaurs Part 1 (Terrestial Lads)
As of recent I've gotten into the weird ass group of Archosauriformes that look like crocodiles yet are fundamentally different in more ways than we think.They're a group of Archosauriforms that likely arise in the early Triassic and then exploded in diversity during the late Triassic.While I won't do a full summary on them here,I will add some things in the references that would be a better introduction to this fantastic group.I'll likely be doing at least three journals of this type for certain groups of Phytosaurs due to just how damn interesting these guys are.To kick start this little project of mine I will begin with the group of Phyt
The Largest Monitor Lizards by Paleonerd01, journal
The Largest Monitor Lizards
Monitor Lizards (Members of the genus Varanus) are the kings of lizards, easily dwarfing most other linages of extant non-snake lizards in both weight and total length by a wide margin. The largest five monitor lizard species include one species of monitor from Africa and four species of goanna from Indo-Australia. From fifth largest to largest overall there is the Perentie goanna (Varanus giganteus), the Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus), the crocodile monitor (Varanus salvadorii), the Asian water monitor (Varanus salvator) and the Komodo monitor/dragon (Varanus komodoensis). In terms of total length and body weight these five are the largest of all lizards, however because individual body size varies so greatly between members of the same species it can be at times difficult to say which of the five species is the true largest overall. Due to average total length and weight for each species varying greatly depending on factors such climate, temperature, time of year, animal health and
AMNH 5767, the forgotten giant theropod by theropod1, journal
AMNH 5767, the forgotten giant theropod
This is not the first time I am pointing out the critical importance of sample size and the difference between average and maximum body sizes in extinct taxa, and I think what follows could be a nice demonstration of this.
A recent comment by ~randomdinos (https://www.deviantart.com/randomdinos) made me wonder about the real size of AMNH 5767, better known as "Epanterias amplexus" (or just plain old Allosaurus fragilis sensu Chure 2000, though common wisdom has it that this is the specimen actually reaching the 12m-mark). It’s commonly stated to be 20% bigger than any other Allosaurus (and that might well be true), but that’s the sort of vague statement we shouldn&