Latest Dromaeosaurs Stories
A new species of dinosaur that was a close relative of the Velociraptor has been discovered by two Ph. D. candidates, a pair of press releases announced Friday.Remains of the species, which has been named Linheraptor exquisitus, were uncovered by University College London (UCL) student Michael Pittman and George Washington University (GW) student Jonah Choiniere in the Gobi desert region of Mongolia. The find included a nearly complete skeleton that was said to be well preserved."I only...
This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birdsA group of University of Kansas researchers working with Chinese colleagues have discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China. This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds."This thing is a venomous bird for all intents and purposes," said Larry Martin, KU professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum and...
Canadian paleontologists have discovered the remains of the smallest meat-eating dinosaur known to roam North America.Hesperonychus elizabethae looked like a Velociraptor, but the carnivorous mini-dinosaur found in the swamps and forests of southern Alberta was barely the size of a chicken "” weighing only around 4-to-5 pounds.Nicholas Longrich of the University of Calgary said it probably hunted and ate whatever it could for its size "” insects, mammals, amphibians and maybe even other...
On Tuesday, researchers reported the discovery of a new species of raptor in Argentina, one of the largest of its kind.The creature would have weighed nearly 800 pounds and been 15 feet long with very short arms, resembling a Tyrannosaurus. The raptor was a slender, two-legged hunter. The creature has gained recent popularity through books and movies like Jurassic Park.The discovery brings new information into the discussion of the evolution of dromaeosaurids, which were intelligent,...
The fossilized remains of a dinosaur about the size of a pigeon that may be the ancestor of birds has been discovered by archeologists in China. Scientists recovered 90 percent of the skeleton which was preserved in rock found in Ningcheng county in Inner Mongolia of northern China. The find was reported in an article in Nature. It has four limbs which lacked contour feathers that could be used for flight, making it a flightless creature. It probably live 176 to 146 million years ago in...
Canadian scientists announced the discovery of the fossil of a species of tiny dinosaur that's the smallest dinosaur yet found in North America. University of Calgary paleontology researcher Nick Longrich said the unusual dinosaur was the size of a chicken, ran on two legs and scoured the ancient forest floor for termites. The fossil was found by Longrick and University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie during the excavation of an ancient bone bed near Red Deer, Alberta. "These are...
WASHINGTON - Velociraptor, the terrifying predator made famous in the movie "Jurassic Park," appears to have had feathers in real life. A close study of a velociraptor forearm found in Mongolia shows the presence of quill knobs, bumps on the bone where the feathers anchor, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. Dinosaurs are believed to be ancestors to modern birds. Evidence of feathered dinosaurs has been found in recent years, and now velociraptor can be...
An 80-million-year-old dinosaur fossil unearthed in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia demonstrates that miniaturization, long thought to be a hallmark of bird origins and a necessary precursor of flight, occurred progressively in primitive dinosaurs.The find, described in the September 7 issue of the journal Science, is made up of the fossilized bones of a new dinosaur the researchers have named Mahakala, and includes portions of its skull, forelimb and hindlimb, as well as much of the vertebral...
WASHINGTON -- When the Wright Brothers first took to the sky in a biplane, they were using a design nature may have tried 125 million years earlier. A new study of one of the earliest feathered dinosaurs suggests it may have had upper and lower sets of wings, much like the biplanes of early aviation. Today, the biplane is widely considered an old-fashioned rarity.And the design is no longer seen in birds, though it's not clear if it was a step on the way to modern birds or a dead end, tested...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An especially well-preserved specimen of Archaeopteryx shows the first known bird had feet like a dinosaur -- made not for perching but for running on the ground, scientists said on Thursday. The first toe on the fossil turns inward, similar to a human thumb and most like the hunting dinosaurs known as deinonychosaurs -- notably the Velociraptor with its long claw for disemboweling prey. Gerald Mayr of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany,...
Latest Dromaeosaurs Reference Libraries
Velociraptor, meaning “swift seizer” is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived about 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. There are two species that are presently recognized. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils of this particular species have been uncovered in Mongolia. A second species, V. osmolskae, it was named in 2008 for some skull material from Inner Mongolia, China. They are smaller than other dromaeosaurids such as...
Deinonychus is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. There’s one described species, Deinonychus antirrhopus. These dinosaurs, which were capable of growing to be 11 ft long, lived during the early Cretaceous Period, around 115 to 108 million years ago. Fossils have been uncovered from the U.S states of Wyoming, Montana, and Oklahoma, in rocks of the Cloverly Formation and Antlers Formation, though teeth that might belong to Deinonychus have been found much farther east in...
Microraptor, meaning “small thief,” is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period (120 million years ago). This small, four-winged animal was first discovered in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China, with more than two dozen specimens unearthed. There are two known species of Microraptor. The type species, M. zhaoianus, has been hotly debated for years. It was initially placed in the genus Archaeoraptor before a more accurate description placed it in the...
Sinornithosaurus, meaning “Chinese bird-lizard,” is a genus of feathered dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the early Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous Period (120 - 125 million years ago). It lived in what is now China and was the fifth non-avian feathered dinosaur discovered by 1999. It was discovered in the Jianshangou beds of the Yixian Formation, from the Sihetun locality of western Liaoning. Xu Xing, Wang Xiaolin and Wu Xiaochun, of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Beijing are...
Tianyuraptor, meaning "Tianyu thief," is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Barremian and Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous Period (129 to 122 million years ago). It was discovered in western Liaoning, China in the Dawangzhangzi Bed of the Yixian Formation. While similar to other dromaeosaurids that have been discovered in Liaoning, it is somewhat more primitive. The type specimen, which was described in 2009, shows features not previously known in Northern Hemisphere...
