images

Crichtonsaurus and frogs

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

t-din03-14001

Date

2009-11-19

A ten-foot-long Crichtonsaurus crosses paths with a pair of frogs deep within a Cretaceous forest 95 million years ago. The heavily armored Crichtonsaurus was an herbivore and therefore unlikely to have any interest in frogs as food, while the carnivorous frogs are doubtless in search of smaller prey. The forest is populated with various ferns and the conifer-like Wollemi Pine (not a true conifer, rather an Araucariaceae more closely related to the Monkey Puzzle tree).
Crichtonsaurus is named after the late American author Michael Crichton whose novels included the dinosaur thriller Jurassic Park.