The measurements of thousands of teeth from known dinosaur species were used to train three different models. Each model analyses the data in a different way, with the results of each combined to give the most likely identity of each tooth. Alternatively, it’s possible that it was buried while in a burrow. Alvarezsaurids like Jaculinykus had tiny but powerful forelimbs that might possibly have allowed them to excavate underground tunnels, and if this collapsed, it would have preserved its life position.

Unlike in humans, dinosaurs had teeth which were continuously shed and replaced throughout their life. They are also highly resistant to erosion and degradation, making it more likely they will survive as fossils. The similarities are so pronounced that when they were first discovered, some scientists believed these dinosaurs might be the direct ancestors of some living birds. More recent research has instead revealed that they are relatives who adapted to similar challenges in a process known as convergent evolution. The genus Iguanodon is part of a group of related dinosaurs known as Iguanodontia. This family of plant-eaters lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, which lasted from 145 million to 100.5 million years ago. Ceratosuchops and Riparovenator add crucial knowledge about the poorly understood spinosaurids, shedding light on the group’s evolutionary origins. Most of the oldest spinosaurids lived in what’s now Europe, which suggests the group’s ancestral homeland was in the Northern Hemisphere. ( Read more about Ceratosuchops and Riparovenator’s scientific significance.) 6. A toothless pipsqueak from Brazil The teeth we analysed include what are currently the only troodontid and therizinosaur fossils ever recorded from the UK and are the oldest evidence of these dinosaurs anywhere in the world.'

1. Morocco’s “punk-rock” dinosaur with bizarrely spiky ribs

They were likely small, active predators. Probably starting off with a body length of only a couple of metres, they would have been bipedal with small, grasping hands. A fossil jawbone found in Alaska offers evidence that some dinosaurs stayed in polar habitats year-round. Largely ignored due to its scrappy nature, the fossil is composed of part of an arm bone plus a few vertebrae. Crucially, however, some of these vertebrae are from close to the hip and show that three of them were sacral vertebrae, and this three-vertebra sacrum is one of the defining features of dinosaurs.

Finding out what this common ancestor could be, however, is difficult, as the fossils of small dinosaurs like the alvarezsaurids are often badly preserved. If the dinosaurs found in the Ischigualasto Formation are already recognisably dinosaurs, it suggests that their origins are even more ancient.

The secrets of sleep

Tlatolophus probably stretched about 26 feet from snout to tail and stood about 6.5 feet tall at the hip. Based on its well-preserved skull, scientists think that the animal was a close cousin of the iconic crested lambeosaur Parasaurolophus, which are seen drinking from a lake near the beginning of the movie Jurassic Park. Like all meat-eating dinosaurs, or theropods, the earliest alvarezsaurids had three-fingered hands,’ Paul explains. ‘Over time, however, the outer fingers get smaller, and eventually disappear altogether.’ By confirming the presence of these dinosaur groups in the Middle Jurassic, the paper also lends support to theories that maniraptorans had already achieved a worldwide distribution before the supercontinent of Pangaea began to break up around 170 million years ago.

Artist's reconstruction of the world's oldest modern bird, Asteriornis maastrichtensis, in its original environment Will DNA from the likes of Tyrannosaurus ever be found? The consensus has been “No,” as DNA decays too fast after death to survive millions and millions of years. But in a study published in National Science Review this year, researchers have proposed that they’ve found chemical signatures consistent with DNA in the bones of a 70 million-year-old hadrosaur called Hypacrosaurus. The results have yet to be expanded upon or verified, but the idea that even degraded DNA from non-avian dinosaurs might survive is tantalizing for all such a discovery might teach us about prehistoric life. Polar Dinosaurs Remained Year Round On average, paleontologists have found more than 45 new dinosaur species every year since 2003. The pace of discovery is staggering, and during this golden age of paleontology, scientists are transforming our understanding of the prehistoric world. Initially museum staff thought the bone was part of the Moroccan stegosaur Adratiklit, since it came from the same area in the country’s Atlas Mountains. But Maidment and her colleagues soon realized that the fossil belonged to something new—making it much more significant. The Natural History Museum then established an agreement with Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, Morocco, to research the fossil together. Regardless of the status of Nyasasaurus, a pretty good picture of what the first dinosaur looked like can be discerned by drawing from the evidence provided by the earliest true dinosaurs.In November a Brazilian research team unveiled a remarkable toothless dinosaur in the journal Scientific Reports. The fossil creature, called Berthasaura leopoldinae, is the most complete fossil of its kind and age ever found in Brazil. It is named for two influential Brazilian women: Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz, a zoologist and pioneering women’s rights advocate, and Brazil’s first empress, Maria Leopoldina, who played a pivotal role in securing the country’s independence.