Latest articles by Julio Lacerda

Longisquama insignis is one of the most enigmatic reptiles in the fossil record. Scientists thought it was a tree-dwelling animal with weird back appendages and then a tiny flying relative of birds, and back again. Nobody is as yet sure how it used its defining features: The elongated “skin appendages” on its back.

It is an image familiar to anyone involved in paleontology: a dinosaur fossil, discovered with neck arched backwards – nearly touching the body, and mouth wide open.

Therizinosaurs are among the most unorthodox of dinosaurs. They have a big belly, short legs and tail, a long neck and a set of immense flattened claws to help them manipulate branches. Despite the majority being from Asia, tantalizing remains have surfaced from the unlikeliest of places.