2015 was a big year for dinosaur enthusiasts. Between Jurassic World, The Good Dinosaur, amazing new dinosaur games, toys, TV specials, museum exhibits, traveling dinosaur shows, and more, dinosaur enthusiasts of all ages got a chance to learn more and experience awesome dinosaurs in many formats. To top it all off, paleontologists discovered many new dinosaurs, in keeping with our “golden age of dinosaur discovery” we mentioned for 2014.
Here are some of the biggest dinosaur discoveries from 2015:
- Dakotaraptor steini: A newly discovered “giant raptor.” It lived in the Morrison Formation, at the same time as T-rex.
- Sefapanosaurus zastronensis: A sauropodomorph that lived in South Africa in the beginning of the Jurassic.
- Chilesaurus diegosuarez: A theropod in Chile related to T-rex, but it was an herbivore.
- Regaliceratops peterhewsi: A horned dinosaur, a chasmosaurine, with elaborate ornamentation on its frills, like a centrosaurine, that lived in the Cretaceous in what is now Canada.
- Zhenyuanlong suni: A feathered dromaeosaur, related to Velociraptor, found in China and known as the “poodle from hell.”
- Wendiceratops pinhornensis: A new horned dinosaur from Alberta, Canada, with the earliest known “tall nose horn.”
- Probrachylophosaurus bergei: A duck-billed dinosaur that lived in what is now Montana, known as “Superduck” for its elaborate head crests.
- Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: A hadrosaurid found int he Prince Creek Formation in Alaska.
- Pulanesaura eocollum: An early sauropod from the early Jurassic found in South Africa.
- Yi qui: A feathered dinosaur from the middle Jurassic in China that had bat-like wings.
- Tototlmimus packardensis: An ornithomimid or “bird mimic” dinosaur that lived in what is now Mexico
- Morelladon gasulla: A “sail-backed” dinosaur found in Spain.
- Kunbarrasaurus ieversi: An armored dinosaur in Australia, renamed after being found two decades ago.
- Sibirosaurus: A titanosaur found in Russia. Sibirosaurus is just its nickname.
- Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis: A ceratopsian dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic in what is now China.
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