The most epic creatures that ever lived finally have a memento for their discovery!

New dinosaur species are found nearly every week. Last year alone, we got almost 50 newly named dinosaurs.

Most of these dinosaurs go unnoticed, with just a single scientific paper to mark the occasion. We can do better! Just like new baseball players are celebrated with rookie trading cards, dinosaur fans can now celebrate with their own rookie cards. We're starting with 6 of the coolest recent discoveries (including the spikiest dinosaur to ever live and the dinosaur that for decades people thought was Tyrannosaurus rex, but turns out, was a much smaller cousin!)

Your very own, beautifully designed, scientifically accurate dinosaur rookie trading cards, featuring dinosaurs that are sure to impress your friends.

If you're a patron of ours on patreon.com/iknowdino you will also get the exclusive foil Nanotryannus card.

Spicomellus ("spike collar")
Possibly the most impressive armored animal ever to walk the Earth. When the first remnants of its spikes were found, they were thought to be the tail weaponry of a stegosaur. The spikes turned out to be from an ankylosaur and were fused directly to its rib. Spicomellus was first named based on just a spiky rib in 2021, but in 2025 much more of the dinosaur was described, including massive spikes that were fused directly to its neck bones!

Duonychus ("two claw")
Therizinosaurus is famous for having the largest claws of any animal in Earth's history. Like most therizinosaurs, Duonychus also had incredibly large claws. However, unlike most of its relatives (who had three-clawed hands), it only had two claws on each hand. Even though this group is distantly related to Tyrannosaurus, they didn't use these claws for hunting, because they only ate plants!

The most complete and oldest known pachycephalosaur. The specimen was at least 2 years old, but it already had the magnificent dome that Pachycephalosaurus is famous for. Even more interesting are its tiny hands! Zavacephale's hands are so small that the researchers had to make sure they weren't fossilized remains from another—much smaller—animal.

Tameryraptor ("thief from the beloved land")

This dinosaur was excavated over 100 years ago in Egypt—the beloved land that the name refers to. Like the original Spinosaurus material, Tameryraptor was excavated and transported to Germany. Both the original Spinosaurus and Tameryraptor specimens were destroyed by the Allied bombing of Munich during World War II. Luckily, a cast of the brain from Tameryraptor survived which shows how similar it was to its cousin Carcharodontosaurus. But unlike Carcharodontosaurus, Tameryraptor probably had a horn on top of its snout.

This curious dinosaur was built for wading in water and eating plants. Its legs were long with rigid ankles (typical of wading birds). Inside the stomach scientists found small stones called gastroliths (typical of plant eaters). It had a short beak and a parrot-like head. "Yuanyang" in Mandarin Chinese means "lovebirds" in English. Paleontologists chose this name because two Yuanyanglong individuals were found fossilized together—possibly showing a devoted couple preserved together forever.

Nanotyrannus ("dwarf tyrant")
The first bones scientists found of this dinosaur were originally named as a species of the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus. Decades later some upstart paleontologists re-assigned those bones to a new genus: Nanotyrannus. They named it the "dwarf tyrant" because it looked like a miniature Tyrannosaurus. In fact, they look so alike that for decades paleontologists debated whether it was a unique animal or just a young T. rex. That all changed last year when a team described a whole new skeleton, and it had features showing Nanotyrannus was more than just a baby T. rex. Even more surprising was when the team studied more controversial tyrannosaur fossils, they found there was not just one, but at least two valid species of Nanotyrannus. The original species was named in 1988 (Nanotyrannus lancensis), and it turns out the brand new species, Nanotyrannus lethaeus, had been hiding in plain sight on display at the Burpee Museum in Illinois for 20 years.




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