Everything Dinosaur’s Top Ten Blog Posts of 2019 (Part 1)

As this year draws to a close, it is time to reflect on all the work put into writing this web log by Everything Dinosaur team members.  It is also an opportunity to look back and reflect on some of the news stories and articles that we have published over the last twelve months.  Today, we start our look at the top ten articles that we have posted, the countdown from ten to number six.  This list has been compiled based on the total number of comments made, emails received requesting  further information, Facebook “likes” and comments, Pinterest shares and so forth.

So, without any further fuss, here is the first part of our top ten news stories for 2019.

10).  Prehistoric Shark Named After Video Game Character

In January, Everything Dinosaur covered a story about the naming of a new species of Late Cretaceous prehistoric shark.  Strange, unusually shaped shark’s teeth had been found preserved in some of the matrix associated with the famous “Sue” T. rex skeleton.  The tiny teeth reminded the research team of the shape of a spaceship from the 1980’s video game Galaga.  This was the inspiration behind the naming of this new species – Galagadon nordquistae.

Life Reconstruction of Galagadon nordquistae

Picture credit: Velizar Simeonovski (Field Museum)

9).  Bajadasaurus pronuspinax Rears its Head

Early February saw the announcement of the discovery of a new, bizarre dicraeosaurid from Neuquén Province, Argentina.  A single, cervical vertebra suggests that Bajadasaurus had a series of forward facing defensive spikes on its neck.  A sauropod that carried its own set of Victorian railings around with it.  Although, the fossil material is fragmentary, CollectA were quick of the mark and have created a stunning replica of this Early Cretaceous giant.  Everything Dinosaur expects to have the CollectA Bajadasaurus replica in stock early in 2020.

A Silhouette Showing a Reconstruction of the Neck Vertebrae of Bajadasaurus and the CollectA Bajadasaurus Dinosaur Model

Picture credit: Gallina et al published in Scientific Reports and Everything Dinosaur

To view the CollectA Deluxe model range: CollectA Deluxe Prehistoric Life Models.

8).  The Jurassic Mile

In March, a blog post was published recording the start of a huge collaboration between a number of European and American museums to explore and excavate an extraordinary, fossil-rich deposit located in the Badlands of Wyoming.  The site has been nicknamed the “Jurassic Mile” and these Morrison Formation deposits have already yielded a treasure trove of dinosaur bones, fossil plants and dinosaur trackways.

Everything Dinosaur will be providing more details of the fossil discoveries in blog articles over the coming twelve months, but the site is so vast that it could be decades before all the fossil material has been collected and studied.

Palaeontologist Phil Manning Sitting Next to a Diplodocid Femur from the “Jurassic Mile”

Picture credit: Manchester University

7). New Kid on the Block – Homo luzonensis

The discovery of fragmentary fossil remains of a diminutive hominin on the island of Luzon in the Philippines gave the human family tree a jolt in 2019.  The fossil material, dated to around 67,000 years ago, provides the earliest direct evidence of human inhabitation of the Philippines archipelago, but is Homo luzonensis, with its arboreal adaptations the descendant of a primitive African hominin that somehow migrated to south-eastern Asia or a more advanced hominin, perhaps related to Homo erectus that evolved and changed as it adapted to life on a heavily forested tropical island?

Professor Philip Piper – A Co-author of the Scientific Paper Published in April Holding a Cast of a Toe Bone

Picture credit: Lannon Harley (Australian National University)

6). A Terrifying Trilobite (Redlichia rex)

In the summer, Everything Dinosaur published an article about the largest trilobite to have been discovered in Australia.  A likely predator of other trilobites, this was a thirty-centimetre-long Cambrian terror. It was appropriately named Redlichia rex and was nicknamed “the king of the trilobites”.  The fossil material comes from an exceptional Lagerstätte known as the Emu Bay Shale on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Around fifty different species of trilobite have been identified from this location.  Intriguingly, the predatory and potentially cannibalistic Redlichia rex may also have been hunted, preserved coprolite and the injuries recorded on the exoskeleton of specimens hint at a much larger predator lurking in the shallow sea that once covered this part of Australia.

A Fossil Specimen and the New for 2020 CollectA Redlichia rex Trilobite Model

Picture credit: University of Adelaide/Everything Dinosaur

View the CollectA not-to-scale Age of Dinosaurs model range: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Life.

The naming of a new Cambrian predator inspired the model makers at CollectA to create a replica of Redlichia rex, we expect this figure to make its debut on the Everything Dinosaur website around the middle of next year.  Prior to that event in 2020, we must first complete our chronicle of the top blog posts of 2019, we will conclude this feature tomorrow.

The Everything Dinosaur website: The Everything Dinosaur Website.