The Riches

The world owes a fairly big chunk of its knowledge of Australian dinosaurs to Tom and Patricia Rich (more correctly known as Patricia Vickers-Rich). Using the equipment of a company known as the Atlas Copco Company in 1984 (naming and describing taking place during 1988 and 1989) the duo dug out and named a dinosaur after their tool company! Additionally, the specific epithet honors the state manager of Atlas Copco, and an assistant in the dig, William Loads. Therefore, the name Atlascopcosaurus loadsi, was coined in the description of this dinosaur. A small basal Ornithopod dinosaur, Atlascopcosaurus is known from fragmentary cranial skeletal material and not well known at that. Since the postcranial material is missing, not much is known about the overall shape of these dinosaurs other than that they were basal bipedal Ornithopods, and this is hypothesized from the skull. Difficult weeks are a lot of fun around here!