A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Appendix

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Gallimimus

Taxon: Ornithomimidae

Name means: “chicken mimic”

Pronounced: GAL-I-MYE-mus

Length: 17 ft (5 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 75 – 70 mya

Place: Mongolia

At seventeen feet long, this “chicken mimic” would be a little on the jumbo size. Gallimimus was actually named for its skeletal neck structure, which was said to resemble that of a rooster, rather than for its size. In fact, this long-legged ostrich-like dinosaur has many exceptionally well-preserved skulls available for study, so speculation on its general appearance is detailed. It had a long beak-like snout, shaped much like a shovel or a duck’s bill --- flat at the tip on both the bottom and the top of the jaw. The eyes were located on the sides of the dinosaur’s head to provide a wide angle of view, so straight-forward depth perception, usually very strong in predatory animals, may not have been very good. Its arms and fingers were weak, so grasping probably wasn’t Gallimimus’ strong point either. With its long legs and light, streamlined body, speed was probably the biggest strength for Gallimimus. It likely ate small reptiles and insects which didn’t require much chasing, so sprinting was probably an evasive evolution to get Gallimimus as far away from predators as possible – perhaps as fast as 50 miles per hour. Gallimimus was named by Roniewcz and Barsbold.

Galtonia

Taxon: Ornithischia

Name means: “for Galton,” Named for Peter M. Galton, a paleontologist

Pronounced: gal-TONE-ee-ah

Length: about 3 – 6.5 ft (1 – 2 m)

Time: Late Triassic, 227 – 221 mya

Place: Pennsylvania (North America)

Gargoyleosaurus

Taxon: Ankylosauridae

Name means: “gargoyle lizard”

Pronounced: gar-GOI-lo-SAW-rus

Size: about 10 ft (3 m)

Time: Late Jurassic, 154 – 144 mya

Place: Wyoming

The broad, horned skull of this primitive nodosaur allegedly resembles the profile of a Gothic gargoyle statue, so Ken Carpenter, Miles and Cloward dubbed it “Gargoyleosaurus.” The long, narrow beak at the tip of the skull contains seven premaxillary teeth. These were lost in less primitive nodosaurs, which usually had a broad, flat mouth. This plant-eater’s body was protected by at least two spines jutting out from each shoulder.

Garudimimus

Taxon: Ornithomimidae

Name means: “Garuda mimic” (bird of Asian mythology)

Pronounced: guh-ROO-di-MYE-mus

Length: 11.5 – 13 ft (3.5 – 4 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 97.5 – 88.5 mya

Place: Mongolia, China

This theropod had a decidedly bird-like skull and skeleton, so Barsbold named it after a bird from Asian mythology. Like the other ostrich-like ornithimimid dinosaurs, Garudimimus was long-legged, fleet-footed, and probably fed on small reptiles, mammals or insects. It had shorter toes than most other members of its group, and bore four of those toes on each foot rather than the usual three.

Gasosaurus

Taxon: Theropoda

Name means: “gas lizard”

Pronounced: GAS-uh-SAW-rus

Size: 12 ft (3.5 m)

Time: Middle Jurassic, 175 – 163 mya

Place: China

Gasosaurus is reported to have been a meat-eating, bipedal carnosaur, but if so, it was among the smallest of the carnosaur group. Incompletely preserved, the original specimen was discovered in the world-famous Dashanpu quarry in Sichuan, central China. Gasosaurus was given its usual name by Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming, who named the dinosaur in honor of the natural gas facility whose workers originally found the bones. The name may have been a pun, as “gas” can also be translated to mean “trouble.” Calling the dinosaur “Gasosaurus,” therefore, seems doubly appropriate when describing a ferocious meat-eater, even if only a small one.

Gasparinisaura

Taxon: Iguanodontia

Name means: “Gasparini’s lizard,” named for Dr. Zulma B. Gasparini

Pronounced: gas-pah-REEN-ee.-SAW-ra

Size: 2.5 ft (80 cm), perhaps a juvenile

Time: Late Cretaceous, 90 – 84 mya

Place: Argentina

This small iguanodont from Patagonia, a spike-thumbed plant-eater which could walk either two or all four feet, was named in 1996 for an Argentine paleontologist by the describers, Coria and Salgado. The small, possibly sub-adult specimens represent the most primitive non-hadrosaur ornithopods known from Argentina. It is curious that such a primitive dinosaur as Gasparinisaura would be found in the Late Cretaceous in that part of the world.

Gastonia

Taxon: Ankylosauridae

Name means: “for Gaston,” Named for Robert Gaston

Pronounced: gas-TOH-nee-a

Length: 14 – 20 feet (4 – 6 m)

Time: Early Cretaceous, 127 – 121 mya

Place: Utah

Utah State Paleontologist Jim Kirkland named this medium-sized ankylosaur based on the discovery of over 1000 bones and pieces of armor in Grand County, Utah. The bones appear to have belonged to between four and five individual members of the same species. The skull is broad and triangular with nasal openings in the front. The eyes are forward-facing for three-dimensional vision, and the braincase seems to have been moveable, a kind of intellectual insurance, to serve as a brain-friendly shock absorber in the event of collision with another armored dinosaur. Gastonia exhibited a spectacular array of body armor, including large triangular plates projecting sideways along the tail. Unusually for this type of ankylosaur, Gastonia did not have a bony club at the tip of its tail.

Genusaurus

Taxon: Theropoda

Name means: “knee lizard”

Pronounced: JEN-oo-SAW-rus

Length: 6.5 – 13 ft (2 – 4 m)

Time: Early Creteceous, 112 – 99 mya

Place: France

This dinosaur’s name, as described by Beaudion, Dejax, Fries, Michard and Taquet, refers to a crest on the bones of its knee section. Believed by be the latest known ceratosaur, the carnivorous Genusaurus walked on two legs and was likely a strong, formidable predator.

Genyodectes

Taxon: Theropoda

name means: “jaw biter:

pronounced: JEN-ee-oh-DECK-teez

size: Unknown

time: Late Cretaceous

place: Argentina

Little can be said for certain about this carnivore, known only from a small fossilized section from the tip of its snout. The skull fragment includes only the tooth-carrying bones (premaxilla, maxilla and dentary), but the more diagnostic parts (i.e., the ones which would better allow paleontologists to understand what the dinosaur was like) of the skull are missing. The teeth in the lower jaw are fairly small. The skull has some similarities to that of Carnotaurus, another short-armed carnivore from the same area and time frame. It has been suggested that Genyodectes may actually belong to Abelisaurus. Genyodectes was named by Woodward.

Geranosaurus

Taxon: Heterodontosauridae

name means: “crane lizard”

pronounced: juh-RAN-uh-SAW-rus

size: Small

time: Early Jurassic

place: South Africa

Though this plant-eating heterodontosaur was named for its slender, bird-like legs, its most distinctive feature was is its teeth. Beneath its horny beak, the front teeth of Geranosaurus were significantly larger and longer than the rest --- five millimeters in diameter, as opposed to the back teeth, which measured some three or four millimeters. Both upper and lower jaws featured these distinctive elongated canine-like fangs.

Giganotosaurus

Taxon: Allosauridae

Name means: “giant southern lizard”

Pronounced: jig-a-NOTE-o-SAW-rus

Length: 44 – 47 feet (13.5 – 14 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 99 – 94 mya

Place: Argentina

This gigantic South American carnivore is currently the largest-known

predatory dinosaur of all time. Giganotosaurus even beasts out the biggest

discovered specimens of the other meat-eating giants, Tyrannosaurus and

Carcharodontosaurus, in both overall length and estimated body mass.

The immense theropod had three-taloned hands and flattened, serrated,

dagger-like teeth for slashing and slicing. Giganotosaurus appears to have

been sufficiently powerful and well-armed in tooth and claw to have hunted

sauropods much larger even than itself, including the armored titanosaurs.

Gigantosaurus

Taxon: Sauropoda

name means: “giant lizard”

pronounced: jye-GAN-tuh-SAW-rus

size: Large

time: Late Jurassic

place: England

One of the first giant browsing dinosaurs ever, this sauropod was named based on just a few bones discovered in Cambridgeshire, England. The lack of better fossil material has led to the genus now being considered unofficial, as it is impossible to adequately study the dinosaur. Some researchers believe that the bones once called “Gigantosaurus” may belong to Pelorosaurus, Brachiosaurus or Ischyrosaurus. But with so few fossils to study, it’s hard to make that determination for sure. An African sauropod was mistakenly given the same name, and this second dinosaur is now considered to be a member of Tornieria.

Gilmoreosaurus

Taxon: Hadrosauridae

Name means: “Gilmore’s lizard,” (named for Charles Whitney Gilmore)

Pronounced: gil-MOR-uh-SAW-rus

Length: About 26 ft (8 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 85 - 80 mya

Place: Mongolia, china

Gilmoreosaurus has been called an evolutionary link between the large dinosaurian plant-eaters called iguanodontids and the later hadrosaurids, or duckbills. The ends of its toes are claw-like, as are those of iguanodontids. Its limbs, though, are robust like those of the duck-billed dinosaurs. Gillmoreosaurus may have been quick and agile, running on its hind legs. It was discovered in 1923 by an American Museum of Natural History expedition. It received its present name many years later, thanks to describer Michael Brett-Surman. Bones of many members of this primitive flat-headed hadrosaur species have been found in a bonebed in Northern China, suggesting that Gillmoreosaurus likely traveled in herds.

Giraffatitan

Considered by most paleontologists to be BRACHIOSAURUS.

Gojirasaurus

Taxon: Theropoda, possibly Coelophyseidae

Name means: “Gojira lizard” (“Gojira” is the original Japanese name for the movie monster called “Godzilla”)

Pronounced: go-JEER-ah-SAW-rus

Length: about 18 – 20 ft (5.5 – 6 m)

Time: Late Triassic, c. 220 mya

Place: New Mexico

Denver Museum of Natural History paleontologist Ken Carpenter makes his admiration for Godzilla no secret. So when he named this remarkable theropod after the Japanese movie icon in 1997, it was a fitting surprise. Based on a serrated tooth, four ribs, four dorsal vertebrae, and other bones, Gojirasaurus was enormous for its kind and geologic time period, if a bit smaller than its famous namesake.

Gondwanatitan

Taxon: Titanosauria

Name means: “Gondwana titan” or “Land of the Gonds titan”

Pronounced: gond-WAH-nuh-TIE-ton

Size: 20 – 24 ft (6 – 7 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, c. 90 – 65 mya

Place: Brazil

This lightly-built titanosaur, a branch of the long-necked sauropod dinosaurs, is based on an incomplete skeleton found in Brazil. The tail vertebrae have an unusual heart-shaped distal articulation. What limb bones were preserved are slender and long. Gondwanatitan was named for Gondwanaland, which is what we call the ancient merged land-mass which once united what are now, thanks to the process of continental drift, the world’s southern continents.

Gongxianosaurus

Taxon: Sauropodomorpha

Name means: “Gongxian lizard”

Pronounced: GOONG-shyen-o-SAW-rus

Size: 46 ft (14 m)

Time: Early Jurassic, c. 206 – 180 mya

Place: China

Chinese paleontologists were especially pleased when they discovered that the skeletal remains of this great dinosaur were nearly complete. Based on that excellently-preserved collection of bones, they were able to make some fascinating assumptions about how Gongxianosaurus, thought to be a huge prosauropod but possibly a very primitive sauropod, lived. Named in 1998, the four-legged plant eater was bulky for its length. Its front legs were roughly 75% as large as the hind limbs. Belly ribs were also found with this skeleton, a primitive anatomical feature unknown in most sauropods. Gongxianosaurus had a snout with a sloping, rounded appearance.

Gorgosaurus

Taxon: Tyrannosauridae

Name means: “fierce lizard”

Pronounced: GOR-guh-SAW-rus

Length: 26 – 29.5 ft (8 – 9 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, c. 71 mya

Place: Alberta, Montana, New Mexico?

Long considered to be the same animal as Albertosaurus, the large tyrannosaurid called Gorgosaurus is now seeing a resurgence of support as a valid genus of its own. In recent years, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta has collected a number of skulls and skeletons belonging to both meat-eating dinosaurs. With better material now available, it appears that there are more differences between Albertosaurus and the apparently earlier Gorgosaurus than had been previously thought; more differences, in fact, than even between Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus. With the new finds contributing to more than thirty skeletons collected in Alberta alone, Gorgosaurus may be the best-known tyrannosaurid in the world. Gorgosaurus was formally named in 1914 by Lawrence Lambe of the Geological Survey of Canada.

Goyocephale

Taxon: Pachycephalosauria Homalocephalidae

Name means: “adorned head”

Pronounced: GOY-uh-SEF-uh-lee

Length: about 10 feet (3 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 85 – 80 mya

Place: Mongolia

Like other pachycephalosaurs, Goyocephale had a thickened mass of protective bone surrounding its brain. Unlike most others, however, the top of this dinosaur’s skull was almost flat, making this apparently the oldest-known of the homalocephalids, or “flat-headed” pachycephalosaurs. The back margin of the skullcap featured a number of small, probably ornamental knobs and spikes: the adornment for which Goyocephale was named by Maryanska and Osmolska. Both upper and lower jaws were lined with large teeth, suitable for collecting the plant matter upon which this dinosaur fed. Unusually amongst pachycephalosaurs, some skeletal elements other than the skull have been collected for Goyocephale.

Gravitholus

Taxon: Pachycephalosauridae

Name means: “heavy dome”

Pronounced: GRAH-vi-THOH-lus

Size: about 10 ft (3 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 75 mya

Place: Alberta

Another bone-headed pachycephalosaur, Gravitholus had a very large, wide skull, but its head bore no ornamental bumps or nodes. Some paleontologists theorize that the unusual width of this dinosaur’s skull was actually a distortion caused by injury to the bone either before or after the animal died and was fossilized. The skull roof of Gravitholus is greatly inflated, clearly distinguishing it from flat-headed pachycephalosaurs like Goyocephale. Because only the skull of Gravitholus was found, additional details remain a mystery.

Griphosaurus

Name means: “enigma lizard”

Pronounced: GRIF-o-SAWR-us

This is now considered to be ARCHAEOPTERYX.

Gryposaurus

Taxon: Hadrosauridae

Name means: “hook lizard”

Pronounced: GRYE-puh-SAW-rus

Length: 25 ft (8 m)

Time: Late Cretaceous, 76 – 72 mya

Place: Alberta

This 25-foot-long duckbilled dinosaur had a large, narrow skull with arched nostrils. Most distinctive about Gryposaurus was the hump of arched nasal bone on its snout. Covered with skin in life, this protruding snout was probably used to attract a suitable mate or to intimidate rivals. Fossilized skin impressions give us an idea of how Gryposaurus looked when fleshed-out, although colors of course remain a mystery. Smooth, polygonal scales about a quarter of an inch in diameter covered the neck, sides and abdomen of this dinosaur. It also had cone-shaped plates, about half an inch wide and spaced two to three inches apart, upon its tail. Only tooth structure and the distinctive shape of the snout readily distinguish Gryposaurus from the related Kritosaurus. In fact, some experts still believe that they are the same animal, although Gryposaurus is only known from Alberta and Kritosaurus from New Mexico. The many fossilized skulls of Gryposaurus which have been discovered to date are remarkably well-preserved.

Guaibasaurus

Taxon: Saurischia

Name means: “Guaiba lizard,” named after the location of discovery, Rio Guaiba

Pronounced: GWEE-bah-SAW-rus

Length: about 4 ft (1.2 m)

Time: Late Triassic, c. 227 – 221 mya

Place: Brazil

Named by Bonaparte, Ferigolo and Ribeiro, this primitive saurischian was closely related to the earliest representatives of both the Theropoda and Prosauropoda. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the skeleton was missing its fragile skull. Based on study of vertebrae, ribs, an incomplete scapula, an articulated hind leg with a nearly-complete foot and other scattered fossils, it is clear that Guaibasaurus was anatomically more primitive than even Herrerasaurus.