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Sooo, this happened.
Rumors about such a specimen were online for quite some time but now it is published and I think many have heard of it already.
I'm speaking about a paper describing a new specimen of the Liaoningosaurus, a basal ankylosaur from China.

The authors of the paper make three extraordinary claims:

1. This species was a predator and ate fish (and maybe other stuff).
2. liaoningosaurus was a semiaquatic animal.
3. The animals found so far are all adults, which would make Liaoningosaurs, with 27 cm, the smallest orinthischian.

This is pretty darn awesome, but unfortunately require extraordinary claims extraordinary evidences.
The paper did in this case not the best job. Many more methods could have been used on the specimen.
Stuff like microwear analysis of the teeth, UV photography, X-ray etc.

I think that all the stuff proposed by the authors here is possible, and I hope they are right, but the hypothesis stands on weak paws
in the moment.

Because of this I present here Liaoningosaurus not in the most crazy way. We have evidence for juvenile dinosaurs sometimes living away from the adults we also know that they must have been able to swim, just how good remains to be shown. I have some idea how it could have hunted fish but I think it's safer to show it in an more neutral behavior in the moment.
While being more conservative in my approach here the burrow from which a specimen comes is my little bit of speculation here

More work this animal needs to be done and I'm sure some pretty interesting stuff will await us in the future.

In other news:

The large Theropod paper I spoke about recently was just released, have a look on the "Monster von Minden"!
palaeo-electronica.org/content…

Description
Sooo, this happened.
Rumors about such a specimen were online for quite some time but now it is published and I think many have heard of it already.
I'm speaking about a paper describing a new specimen of the Liaoningosaurus, a basal ankylosaur from China.

The authors of the paper make three extraordinary claims:

1. This species was a predator and ate fish (and maybe other stuff).
2. liaoningosaurus was a semiaquatic animal.
3. The animals found so far are all adults, which would make Liaoningosaurs, with 27 cm, the smallest orinthischian.

This is pretty darn awesome, but unfortunately require extraordinary claims extraordinary evidences.
The paper did in this case not the best job. Many more methods could have been used on the specimen.
Stuff like microwear analysis of the teeth, UV photography, X-ray etc.

I think that all the stuff proposed by the authors here is possible, and I hope they are right, but the hypothesis stands on weak paws
in the moment.

Because of this I present here Liaoningosaurus not in the most crazy way. We have evidence for juvenile dinosaurs sometimes living away from the adults we also know that they must have been able to swim, just how good remains to be shown. I have some idea how it could have hunted fish but I think it's safer to show it in an more neutral behavior in the moment.
While being more conservative in my approach here the burrow from which a specimen comes is my little bit of speculation here

More work this animal needs to be done and I'm sure some pretty interesting stuff will await us in the future.

In other news:

The large Theropod paper I spoke about recently was just released, have a look on the "Monster von Minden"!
palaeo-electronica.org/content…