There have been many new dinosaur discoveries in the past few years, and I want to get you all up to date with some of our new/old friends. Some might be old news to you if you’re like me and constantly look out for articles surrounding paleontology, but it’s okay if you don’t even recognise one — that’s why I’m here! I will be telling you about (insert number) different dinosaurs and telling you everything I know about them.

Enigmacursor mollyborthewickae

Originally discovered in Moffat County in 2021-2022 by the private company Dinosaurs of America LLC, Enigmacursor was acquired by the London Natural History Museum in 2024. Later, in 2025, it was described as a new species and genus by Susannah Maidment and Paul Barrett. They entered Enigmacursor into a phylogenetic analysis, placing it as the sister taxon to Yandusaurus (a genus of basal neornithischian dinosaur).

I’ve sourced a cladogram — a diagram that illustrates the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms based on shared characteristics and common ancestry — from Wikipedia:

The name “Enigmacursor” means “puzzling runner”: “puzzling” referring to the fact that it was found in a “taxonomic tangle” in what we know as the Morrison Formation, and “runner” because this tiny dinosaur’s long legs would’ve allowed it to run as fast as it could from danger and avoid being a predator’s snack. “Mollyborthwickae” refers to Molly Borthwick, who made a generous donation to the Natural History Museum that allowed it to purchase and display the Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae.

The aforementioned Morrison Foundation is an Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock that has proven to be the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It covers an area of 600,000 square miles, centred in Wyoming and Colorado, with outcrops in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. There are also equivalent rocks in Canada that go under different names. Only a tiny fraction is exposed and accessible to geologists and paleontologists. It’s produced fossils from Allosaurus, several species of stegosaur, a wide range of sauropods, Ornitholestes, and many more. In 1887, it also became the site of the Bone Wars! But that’s a story for another day… Maybe.

Now, when I describe Enigmacursor as a “tiny dinosaur”, I mean tiny. It was approximately the same height as a Labrador (it was 64 cm tall, and the average height of a Labrador is 54 - 62cm), and it was 180cm long, with most of that length coming from its tail. We are not sure if this was a fully grown specimen, though, so that height could be due to it being juvenile at the time of its death.

It is by far my favourite dinosaur of the bunch I’m going to show you and of all the dinosaurs I know.

Doolysaurus huhmini

In 2023, Hyemin Jo, a researcher at the Korea Dinosaur Research Centre, found remains of a skull, a vertebral column, a forelimb, and a hindlimb of a two-year-old dinosaur in South Korea. The specimen is incomplete but three-dimensionally preserved. Three years later, that toddler dino was described as a new genus and species of thescelosaurid dinosaur by Jongyun Jung and colleagues. The tiny specimen was named after Dooly the Little Dinosaur, a Korean cartoon character, and paleontologist Min Huh for his contributions to dinosaur research in Korea and for founding the Korea Dinosaur Research Centre at Chonnam National University when he was a professor there.

The holotype (single type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based) is estimated to have weighed 8.3kg, or 18lb, based on the circumference of the femur bone. After examining the cortical tissue of the femoral thin section, we think it may have been a rapidly growing juvenile at the time of its death — the incomplete fusion and ossification of the cranial elements and the more bowed shape of the femur than that of other mature basal neornithischians also support this elucidation.

This dinosaur really broke nerd containment on the 20th of March. PopBase even tweeted about it, which is crazy to me. Other accounts, such as About Music and Dexerto, also tweeted about Dooly. The first one was especially random. What does a dinosaur have to do with music? Maybe they confused the little guy with DINO from SEVENTEEN!

Talking about K-Pop (SEVENTEEN is a K-Pop group), kpoptwt seemed particularly fond of comparing this cutiepie to their favourite idols — like Jungkook, Han Jisung, and Cho Mi-yeon.

Spinosaurus mirabilis

Before the discovery of Spinosaurus mirabilis in the Sahara Desert, we had not identified a new spinosaurid dinosaur in over one hundred years. This Spinosaurus is said, by experts, to be among the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs, as it was 12 meters long and weighed around 5-7 tonnes. The fossils of multiple Spinosaurus mirabilis were found, helping to reconstruct the 95-million-year-old dinosaurs.

This dinosaur would’ve spent the majority of its time in the water, stalking fish until it was time to snatch them out of the water and eat them. The idea of Spinosaurus diving after its prey has been floated around by some scientists, but analysis of the dinosaur’s shape suggests that it would’ve hunted from the shoreline or waded into the water to hunt the fish it ate.

One might wonder why a dinosaur so fond of the water and the food it brings would be found in one of the driest places on Earth, but the Sahara Desert wasn’t always like that. During the Cretaceous period, Niger — where Spinosaurus mirabilis was found — would’ve been covered in rivers that networked to support the strong and rich forest ecosystem that surrounded them.

The large crest on top of its head is thought to have been brightly coloured and curved towards the sky. It would have been covered in a layer of keratin (the key structural material that makes up nails, hair, feathers, horns, etc), which would’ve made it even longer in life than it is in fossil form. The crest would’ve been great for attracting mates and competing with rivals, much like Pachycephalosaurus’s domed skull.

Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis

Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis might just be the biggest dinosaur found in Southeast Asia; it’s estimated to weigh ~30 tons and measure at 27 meters long (which is even longer than the Diplodocus!). It was found in Thailand, and its discovery supports the theory that relatively dry, warm, and open environments make the best conditions for giant, evolving sauropods.

It lived between 100 and 120 million years ago and is the 14th dinosaur to be named in Thailand. “Naga” refers to the giant serpent-like Nāga of Southeast Asian folklore, “titan” refers to the dinosaur’s immense frame, and “chaiyaphumensis” means “from Chaiyaphum” (which is the province where the fossils were discovered). “Titan” is actually a common suffix for sauropod names, referencing the pre-Olympian gods from Greek mythology (Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys).

Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a Thai doctoral student at University College London, was the lead author of the study, which was published in the Scientific Reports journal, and a confessed “dinosaur kid” in his childhood. He’s said that this discovery has fulfilled “a childhood promise of naming a dinosaur”.

(What would you name a dinosaur if you ever found one? I have my eyes on an unnamed discovery myself, but I wouldn’t want to jinx it by mentioning it.)

Nagatitan was originally discovered in the Khok Kruat Formation in Chaiyaphum province by Thanom Luangnan on the bank of a pond in 2016. The specimen consists of several vertebrae, parts of the pelvis, and parts of the forelimb and hindlimb. It’s housed in the Sirindhorn Museum (otherwise known as Sirindhorn Dinosaur Museum), which is a lovely geology museum in northeast Thailand.

Haolong dongi

This iguanodontian dinosaur was so well preserved that experts could see what its skin really looked like.

“The complexity of dinosaur skin is far greater than we imagined.”

— Huang Jiandong, from Anhui Geological Museum

Its body was covered in spikes of various sizes — structures never before seen in dinosaurs — and its tail had large, overlapping scales. Current theories for the spikes include them serving as protection for Haolong, making it harder for predators to swallow it, and playing a role in how Haolong controlled its body temperature. They also could’ve helped Haolong sense the world around it, much like a cat’s whiskers.

The name “Haolong” is Mandarin and translates to “spiny dragon” (a reference to its outer layer of spikes), and “dongi” is in honour of Dong Zhiming, who was a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist.

“Finding skin preserved at the cellular level in a dinosaur is extraordinary.” “It gives us a window into the biology of these animals at a level that we never thought possible.”

— Pascal Godefroit, palaeontologist at the Institute of Natural Sciences

The specimen, which lived 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous, was only a juvenile, meaning that researchers can’t confirm whether adults of the species would’ve maintained the same structure.

Not much else is known about this spiky dinosaur; however, I do wish we had more information. Hopefully, we will know more in the future!

Lokiceratops rangiformis

The holotype specimen for Lokiceratops rangiformis was discovered in 2019 in the outcrops of the Judith River Formation and gained its name in 2024 when a group of researchers (led by Mark A. Loewen and Joseph J. W. Sertich) published a description in PeerJ, a scientific mega journal covering research in the biological and medical sciences, that labelled the dinosaur as a new species and genus of ceratopsian dinosaur.

This magnificent creature borrows its name from the Norse god, Loki, due to the similarities between its frill horns and the curved blades Loki is occasionally associated with. The “rangiformis” is taken from the mammal genus “Rangifer” — or, as we know them, reindeer/caribou — whose antlers are bilaterally asymmetrical, much like Lokiceratops’s horns. The full binomial name is intended to mean “Loki’s horned face that looks like a caribou”.

The dinosaur, unlike its closest relatives, appears to lack that iconic nasal horn but makes up for it with its dazzling display of frills. These frills may have been used to attract friends or mates, much like modern-day birds use fancy patterns or feather displays to attract potential mates.

Based on the arrangement of bony ornamentations on the dinosaurs’ frills, it seems to be very closely related to Albertaceratops and Medusaceratops. However, the orientation of said frill horns is different enough to suggest that they are distinct species. Albertaceratops and Medusaceratops have actually been considered as the same species by scientists in the past. The mischief these confusions cause can certainly be appreciated by Lokiceratops’s namesake, the Norse god of Mischief!

Thank you for reading this article, and please feel free to share your favourite discovery in recent years if I didn’t mention it!! I’m sorry for my long absence since November; life has been busy, and I’ve been preparing for college in September.

One I did not mention was Nanotyrannus, but I have a short article named “Not a T-Rex At All, Actually” which covers that discovery.

I started watching Rick and Morty because one of my best friends really enjoys it and tends to give me awesome recommendations (BBC Dracula, Hannibal, Succession, etc.).

I was well aware that Rick Sanchez didn't do time travel and this knowledge led me to believe that dinosaurs mentions would be kept to a minimum (and they would certainly never show up). Now, imagine my surprise when I was gifted with multiple dinosaur references and an entire episode dedicated to dinosaurs returning! So, I have compiled a list of them. Apologies for some of the picture quality, they were photos taken of my tablet, using my phone, for a while! Spoilers ahead, if you care about that kind of thing.

Season 1 Episode 3 “Anatomy Park”

The reference is Anatomy Park itself, which is a parody of the Jurassic Park franchise. I’m counting this as a reference because Jurassic Park is literally just dinosaurs. My personal grievances with the franchise can be ignored for the sake of John Oliver voicing a character.

Season 2 Episode 1 “A Rickle In Time”

Chris is talking on the phone with his friend about Earth and says, “Yeah, with the dinosaurs,” to help him find out where it is — he also mentions that if you see Dolphin People, then you’ve gone too far. Good to know!

Season 2 Episode 4 “Total Rickall”

One of the parasite-created characters is called Photoraptor. He is most likely deceased, like the others in the episode. He’s one of my favourite dinosaurs ever now, and will be taking my wedding photos one day.

Season 2 Episode 6 “The Ricks Must Be Crazy”

Rick shouts “Pterodactyl!” at Zeep to distract him from the cave opposite. I understand that Pterodactyl didn’t exist and Pteranodons are not classified as dinosaurs, but please let me have this. They probably meant it as a dinosaur reference because they naively did not know better. I forgive them for this.

Season 5 Episode 6 “Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular”

While in The Crypt of the New World, they see a cave painting of a turkey dinosaur. No, not the food — an actual creature!

Season 6 Episode 5 “Final DeSmithation”

One of the soldiers that Rick throws a blank fortune cookie at turns into a robotic dinosaur and exclaims, “I am the son of God!”. He also quite resembles G1 Grimlock from Transformers.

Season 6 Episode 6 “JuRicksic Mort”

This entire episode revolves around dinosaurs returning to Earth and attempting to reclaim their rule of the planet. They also reference Jurassic Park through the title, Morty saying “clever girl”, Rick mentioning Laura Dern, and one of the planets they visit mentions creating a movie series about cloning dinosaurs to build a theme park.

P.S: there's a super awesome song filled with dinosaur names in this episode and it's a banger.

Season 8 Episode 7 “Ricker Than Fiction”

During the end credit scene, Summer walks into Rick's lab — where Jerry is currently living inside of his own script for Space Jam 7 — and leaves her script for “raptor porn” on the Movie-lizer. It ends up falling into the machine and combining with Space Jam 7!

This has been every mention of dinosaurs that I can get my grubby little hands on. If you know of any that I've missed, be sure to let me know!

Be sure to watch Rick and Morty S8 if you haven't already, it made me cry twice (which is rare for a TV show).

Let me take you back millions of years ago to Montana, where two dinosaurs died while fighting each other — one a Triceratops, the other assumed to be a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex (nicknamed “Bloody Mary”). That assumption was immortalised by articles, textbooks, museum exhibits, and excited dinosaur nerds everywhere. However, we now know otherwise! The second dinosaur was actually Nanotyrannus lancensis.

What’s the difference between the two? While they’re both tyrannosaurs and quite similar, they have a few differing characteristics. The arms are longer, the tail contains fewer vertebrae, and the nerve channels in the skull are differently shaped.

James Napoli, an anatomist at Stony Brook University, has said:

“For Nanotyrannus to be a juvenile T. rex, it would need to defy everything we know about vertebrate growth; it’s not just unlikely – it’s impossible.”

Now, we must rethink the Cretaceous era being ruled by a single tyrant (which is what many believe to be the case) and think of it, instead, as being governed by multiple predatory species with competing strengths. We also must start to re-examine the entire Tyrannosaurus rex family tree now that there’s a high chance that most juvenile fossils we have could be species of Nanotyrannus (either lancensis or lethaeus).

Professor Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University/head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, has this to say on the topic:

“This fossil doesn’t just settle the debate. It flips decades of T. rex research on its head.”

I recommend this article, “This Tiny Tyrannosaur Could Settle a Huge Scientific Debate”, by Sara Hashemi, if you wish to learn more in-depth and technical information!

(This one’s short, but I have the flu currently, so I was not able to fill this with as much information as I would’ve liked to.)

What do dinosaurs and Percy Jackson have in common? A largely neurodivergent fanbase! With Percy himself canonically having ADHD and many viewing him as autistic, it’s not surprising that he — like many other neurodivergent people — has an interest in the topic. (It’s incredibly important to note that I am writing this article with a dinosaur poster right behind me and an entire wall of images centred around my hyperfixations next to me; I “know ball”).

As someone who used to escape to the world of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I am incredibly excited to see them develop the character with small background details like this. Especially when it comes to exploring his ADHD more, which is something I believe the books occasionally lacked (as expected when it comes to a series from the 2010s, I forgive Rick Riordan and appreciate his effort). Small decisions like his room decor can go a long way here! In his messy room, he also has a poster of a motorbike and a solar system model on his ceiling — that is Percy to a tee, in my opinion. It’s also coincidentally every second neurodivergent person I know (including myself) to a tee. Funny, that!

I’m not the only one who draws parallels between his bedroom decorations and him being neurodivergent, either, by the way.

Twitter user “lys 🪼” PerseusJackssn said:

percy is canonically into dinosaurs and space they’re letting that neurodivergent rep SHINE this season

That post has received 4k likes so far, the people (pjotwt) obviously agree with what I and others are trying to say here!

The user also added more context in a QRT, which I think frames my point here very well:

i don’t think you understand how big this is. one of my biggest gripes with the books was how I felt neurodivergence wasn’t properly developed in a story where every character is ND so this means so much to see evidence of his interests, hyper fixations, and struggles w/ cleaning

While we don't know if the show will even mention dinosaurs out loud, I believe that just having the poster there can help plenty of viewers tuning in feel represented in some way. It already means a lot to people who have only seen two glimpses of it via the trailer.

Imagine being a child, still not quite sure why your mind works the way it does, and catching a glimpse of your new favourite character owning a poster for one of your favourite interests — I would’ve been so happy (a kind of happiness that could only be rivalled by the joy I experienced when watching Dinosaur King). The feeling could resemble what many Percy Jackson readers felt when they first read the books and were introduced to an entire cast of characters who had ADHD and dyslexia. The show is doing the books perfect justice here, while managing to improve upon the source material in a way that actually benefits the story and fans. Demigods being neurodivergent has always been important for a number of reasons, and I’m excited to witness the show hopefully giving 110% effort towards making that more prominent.

Fingers crossed, they hopefully won’t make dinosaur fossils turn out to be the bones of mythological creatures… Percy and I wouldn’t survive that!

“What Would Percy's Favourite Dinosaur Be?”

I hear none of you asking that, but I’m prepared to answer the question anyway, as someone who assigns every character I like a favourite dinosaur. I once created angst out of assigning Succession characters their favourites and having it relate to their place in the family.

From a nerdy standpoint, I want to say Spinosaurus due to it now being popular opinion among palaeontologists that it was a semiaquatic dinosaur with a tadpole-like tail — he is the son of Poseidon! If the show ends up basing Percy’s favourite dinosaur around water, I’m hoping and praying they don't mistakenly identify Mosasaurus or Ichthyosauria as “dinosaurs” because that happens shockingly often.

Now, disregard all of that because I don't believe that Percy's favourite dinosaur would be something tied to water from a realistic standpoint. My two biggest contenders are currently Carnotaurus and Brachiosaurus. Carnotaurus, because he’s a teenage boy — one who must learn how to fight and feels like the world is against him, which it actually is. Boys like him tend to lean towards members of the Tyrannosauridae family (I didn't want to go with the T. rex because it didn't feel very Percy to me). Brachiosaurus does, admittedly, have less reasoning to it, and I just included it because I think having a herbivore as his favourite dinosaur would be a neat nod to having Grover as his best friend. I love Grover, can’t wait to see him rocking a dress!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians S2 starts on December 10th with a two-episode premiere.

Would you like to purchase the poster? Good news: it's at the American Museum of Natural History for $12.99! Order online or see if they have it in the gift shop the next time you visit!