Albertonykus, Huanghetitan, Velafrons...

When I was a kid remembering "all" the dinosaurs was pretty easy. In the Jurassic you had Allosaurus going after "Brontosaurus" and Ceratosaurus trying to take a bite out of Stegosaurus, and the epic battles between Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops were the "main event" of the Cretaceous. As I sunk deeper into dino-mania I learned more and more names but there still seem to be more than I can keep track of. Thankfully Thomas Holtz has just issued an update to his list of dinosaur genera (a supplement to his lavishly-illustrated encyclopedia, Dinosaurs, released last year).

I think I learned more reading the new list for five minutes than in the hours of mulling technical papers over the last week. With so many names it can be difficult to keep track of everything and the new list is an excellent resource. It's not just an A-Z of dinosaurs, though. Locality information, geologic age, size, and enlightening commentary make the list a must-read for anyone interested in dinosaurs and I definitely recommend downloading the latest update.

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I think this should be the go to list for most people when it comes to wondering where most dinosaur species fall in the grand scheme of things. There are a few curious entries (mostly in the ornithischian portion), but I'll try to grab some time to detail them later.

If I may, I would recommend two other excellent resources for those interested in the latest dinosaur genera.

a) http://members.aol.com/Dinogeorge/dinolist.html
Dinosaur George's exhaustive Dinosaur Genera List, cataloging every name that has EVER been given to a dinosaur or anything that's been considered a dinosaur. Updated whenever a new name appears.

b) http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/
Justin Tweet's "Thescelosaurus" site is a sort of spiritual successor to the Dinosauricon. It is a database of all dinosaur species with brief discussion entries about each and every one.

By Adam Pritchard (not verified) on 03 Aug 2008 #permalink