Dinosaurs, pterosaurs & marine reptiles of Isla Sorna

Here's a very large Ceratopsian:


Name: Pentaceratops
Pronunciation: Pen-tah-seh-rah-tops
Meaning of name: "Five horned face" (palaeontologists mistook its pointed cheek bones for an extra pair of horns).
Species: P. sternbergii
Size: Between 6 and 7 metres long, 3 metres high and weighing between 4 and 5 metric tonnes.
Family: Chasmosaurinae (a sub-family of Ceratopsidae).
Diet: Herbivore. Fed on low-growing vegetation.
First fossils found: Known from several specimens, the first of which were discovered by American palaeontologist, Charles Hazelius Sternberg in the Fruitland Formation of New Mexico, in 1921. Named by American palaeontologist, Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 1923.
Lived: 76 to 73 million years ago during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous in what is now the southwestern United States.

It's been suggested that the horns and neck shield were primarily for display, however, since they're also quite tough and heavy, it's also possible they were used for protection against predators such as Albertosaurus.

Pentaceratops - wow that thing is huge.

Pteranodon - too big to sit on my shoulder like my parrot does.

Wow that's big.

This animal isn't a dino, but rather a very large marine reptile with an incredibly long neck:


Name: Elasmosaurus
Pronunciation: Ee-lazz-mo-sore-us.
Meaning of name: "Thin plate lizard".
Species: E. platyurus
Size: Estimated to have measured around 14 metres long and weighed 2.5 metric tonnes.
Family: Elasmosauridae.
Diet: Piscivore.
First fossils found: Known only from a single, partial skeleton discovered by American army surgeon, Theophilus Hunt Turner, in the Pierre Shale Formation of Kansas in 1867. Named by American palaeontologist, Edward Drinker Cope, in 1868. The most striking feature of this Plesiosaur is its neck, which measured half of the animal's total body length, and contained 72 vertebrae.
Lived: 80 million years ago during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous in the Western Interior Seaway, which once covered what is now the western and midwestern United States.

Mr. Cope originally reconstructed the skeleton with the skull on the end of the tail. Fellow palaeontologist, Othniel Charles Marsh, very quickly pointed out the mistake, which led to the two palaeontologists becoming fierce rivals. Between them, they discovered and named 136 dinosaur species (Marsh named 80, Cope named 56).