| 1 | ---- |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caudipteryx_zoui___untere_kreide___liaoning_china_white_background.jpg]] [[caption-width-right:350:Where's the wishbone?]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Let’s talk about the popular word [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniraptora “maniraptors”]]. This term means “robbing hand”, and refers to their large, grasping hands with three fingers each, although some had lost some digits. Maniraptorans make together a natural subgroup of coelurosaurian theropods containing the most bird-related (and bird-looking) non-avian dinosaurs: dromaeosaurids, troodontids, oviraptorosaurs, and other groups. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Technically, also ''birds''. All maniraptoran coelurosaurs shared forelimbs with a bony-structure more or less similar to birds’ wings, and most had true vaned feathers instead of simple down-like protofeathers and plumaceous feathers seen in non-maniraptoran coelurosaurs. All dinosaurs listed in this page are maniraptors, except for ornithomimosaurs [[note]]Ironically, ostrich-mimic dinosaurs have been considered the most iconic dinobirds before the popularization of the dromaeosaurids started in TheNineties, but ornithomimosaurs still remain the closest maniraptoran relatives. The two lineages together form the group called Maniraptoriformes, lit. "shaped like a maniraptoran".[[/note]] and some “feathered coelurosaurs”, which actually should be placed in the [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherSmallTheropods Other Small Theropods]] section, but are here for convenience. For true birds and more primitive small theropods, read the following two pages. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Among bird-like theropods, the most popular one have been described in UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs usually with an illustration: ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Deinonychus, Velociraptor, Oviraptor, Ornithomimus, Struthiomimus, Gallimimus, Troodon/Stenonychosaurus, Utahraptor]]''. Other birdlike theropods that have made frequient appearances in non-fictional media include the dromaeosaurids likes the running ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Dromaeosaurus]]'' of Canada and the "flying" ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Microraptor]]'' of China; the troodontid ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Saurornithoides]]'' of Mongolia; the ornithomimosaurs ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Dromiceiomimus]]'' of Canada and the enormous ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Deinocheirus]]'' of Mongolia; the therizinosaurs ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Segnosaurus]]'' and the colossal ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Therizinosaurus]]'', both of Mongolia; and the oviraptorosaurs ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Citipati]]'' (under the name "Oviraptor"), the tiny ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Avimimus]]'' and the far bigger ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Gigantoraptor]]'', all from Mongolia as well. The small very bird-like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Mononykus]]'', also from Mongolia, belonged to a unusual group named the alvarezsaurs. The animal of the image is ''Caudipteryx''. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | |
| 15 | [[folder: Dromaeosaurs & Troodonts]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | |
| 19 | '''The Real "JP Raptors" Inspirer?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achillobator Achillobator]]'' |
| 20 | |
| 21 | * ''Dromaeosaurus'', ''Velociraptor'', ''Deinonychus'', and ''Utahraptor'' together with some other genera such as ''Adasaurus'', ''Hulsanpes'', and ''Saurornitholestes'', used to make ''the'' dromaeosaurids before the ''Film/JurassicPark'' times and also few years later (middle 1990s). ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adasaurus Adasaurus]]'' ("demon lizard") was found in 1983 in Mongolia, and was mentioned because of its bird-like pubis curving particularly backwards. ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itemirus Itemirus]]'' is known only from a braincase, and was originally put in its own family, Itemirids (today it's considered a proper dromaeosaurid). ''Paronychodon'' and ''Euronychodon'' are even less-known (the only remains being ''teeth''): they're more probably troodontids, but could not even be deinonychosaurs. The name ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithodesmus Ornithodesmus]]'' was originally given to a [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles pterosaur]], but then passed to a fragmentary dromaeosaurid from Early Cretaceous England. We now know all these animals actually ''[[ScienceMarchesOn do not match ]]'' the great variety within their family. Especially since the beginning of the 2000s, many new dromaeosaur species have been discovered, most of them having received the suffix raptor. Examples are the North-American ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambiraptor Bambiraptor]]'' (so called because its skeleton [[WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}} was from a juvenile]]); the European ''Pyroraptor'' ("pyro" = fire in Greek, because was found after a fire) and ''Variraptor'' (which was originally believed the same animal); the South American ''Buitreraptor'' ("buitre" = vulture in Spanish) and short-armed ''Austroraptor'' ("southern plunderer"); and the similarly-named "Australoraptor"[[note]]Note that this name is in quotation marks since it's not, in any way, a published name.[[/note]] from the very, very Down Under: the Snow Hill Island Formation of Antarctica. One exception is the aforementioned ''Achillobator'', which lived in Late Cretaceous Mongolia and, with its 6 m long body, was only slightly smaller than ''Utahraptor''. ''Achillobator'' is particularly noteworthy for being possibly the true identity of the so-called "Velociraptors" in ''Franchise/JurassicPark''. Its fossils were first discovered in 1989, and assumed to come from an enormous, unknown species of ''Velociraptor''; this was Michael Crichton's basis for making the raptors in his novel so large. These were all ground-dwelling kinds with a running-plan like the traditionally-intended “raptors”. The biggest of them (''Utahraptor'', ''Achillobator'', ''Dakotaraptor'') may have been able to take larger game then their smaller relatives; but likely they were more solitary then the smaller ''Velociraptor'', ''Deinonychus'', and ''Dromaeosaurus''. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | |
| 25 | '''Dromeosaur or Bird?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahonavis Rahonavis]]'' |
| 26 | |
| 27 | * But other “new” dromaeosaurids have turned out to be smaller, more specialized animals often with some tree-climbing adaptations. Because of their apparently non-raptor-like nature, some of them were not even initially thought to be dromaeosaurs: this explains why they haven’t got the suffix –raptor. The tiny ''Rahonavis'' from Madagascar, portrayed in ''Series/DinosaurRevolution'' as an imitator of the voices of other animals, was initially thought to be some sort of ''bird'', which it might actually be. This theropod was found in the late 1990s and initially named "Rahona", but the name was already in use for a modern genus of moths living also in Madagascar, and was rapidly discarded. The suffix "''-avis''" means "bird" in Latin, and the animal indeed bears some skeletal similarities with ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Archaeopteryx]]''. Also initially believed a bird was ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unenlagia Unenlagia]]'', the first dromaeosaurid discovered in South America -- some today think it and its relatives belong actually to a separate but still closely-related family, the Unenlagiids. ''Unquillosaurus'' has been known since 1979 from a pelvis which, oddly, was initially believed from a huge carnosaur, but now is generally believed a dromaeosaurid or a similar form. ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperonychus Hesperonychus]]'' (whose name, "western claw", is clearly inspired from "''Deinonychus''"-- a rare case of a dromaeosaur using "-onychus" rather than "-raptor" as a name suffix) was found only in 2009 and briefly considered the smallest North American dinosaur. An avian-looking dromaeosaur found in 2000, which in spite of being a climbing kind it ends in –raptor nonetheless, is now one of the most portrayed bird-like dinosaurs: obviously, we’re talking about ''Microraptor''. Also worth of note are the short-legged ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halszkaraptor Halszkaraptor]]'' from Mongolia, which some believe it was semi-aquatic like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Spinosaurus]]'', and the large paravian ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperobator Imperobator]]'', the second carnivorous dinosaur named and described from Antarctica after ''Cryolophosaurus'' (at the end of TheNewTens) but recently found too basal to be a dromaeosaurid. One animal, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromaeosauroides Dromaeosauroides]]'' (the only described dinosaur from Denmark) means "pseudo-dromaeosaur": it is only known from teeth, but despite its name it's considered one of the earliest known dromaeosaurids so far, from Early Cretaceous. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | |
| 31 | '''Thieves from Hell (Creek):''' ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheroraptor Acheroraptor]]'' & ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakotaraptor Dakotaraptor]]'' |
| 32 | |
| 33 | * In many forms of dinosaur media, you'll frequently see generic raptors living alongside ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' and ''Triceratops''. These raptors are typically named after someone in the PowerTrio of the Raptor family, ''Utahraptor'', ''Deinonychus'' or ''Velociraptor''. However, there is a small problem here: none of these raptors actually lived with ''T. rex'' or ''Triceratops''. ''Deinonychus'' and ''Utahraptor'' died out long before ''T. rex'' showed up, and ''Velociraptor'' lived at the same time but on the other side of the planet, though it did live with a close relative of ''Tyrannosaurus'': ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Tarbosaurus]]''. For the longest time, this common stereotype was seen as inaccurate.... until 2013. ''Acheroraptor'' ("plunderer of Acheron") was a small raptor, similar to ''Velociraptor'' in appearance, size and likely ecological niche that lived in the Hell Creek Formation at the very end of the Cretaceous. It most likely hunted small game such as lizards, baby dinosaurs, and mammals, which meant that the idea of large dromaeosaurs living in North America at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs was ''still'' not quite accurate.... until 2015. ''Dakotaraptor'' ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "plunderer of the Dakotas"]]) is one of the largest "raptor" dinosaurs known to science, with only ''Utahraptor'' as a possible rival for the title of absolute biggest. As such, it was easily the second-largest predator in North America at the end of the Cretaceous, only behind ''Tyrannosaurus'' itself. At 20 feet long and half a ton in weight, it probably hunted the same sized prey as the smaller tyrannosaur species did. ''Dakotaraptor'' presumably ate medium-sized dinosaurs like ornithomimids (''Ornithomimus''), pachycephalosaurs (''Pachycephalosaurus''), basal ornithopods (''Thescelosaurus''), basal ceratopsians (''Leptoceratops''), and young hadrosaurs, while leaving tougher prey like the big-sized ceratopsids, sauropods, ankylosaurs, and full-grown hadrosaurs to ''T. rex''. Despite having been discovered only in 2015, ''Dakotaraptor'' has seen more than its share of controversy. The furcula (that part of the skeleton you call the "wishbone") of the first skeleton was identified as being part of a turtle shell shortly afterwards, and later on it's been suggested that some of its remains might actually from the ''Oviraptor'' relative ''Anzu''. This would make the ''Dakotaraptor'' type specimen a chimera, meaning the name may not be valid. While we can say with confidence that there was a giant dromaeosaur in Hell Creek, it remains uncertain if ''Dakotaraptor'' is the correct name for that animal. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | ---- |
| 36 | |
| 37 | '''Smaller Sickles:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinovenator Sinovenator]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinfengopteryx Jinfengopteryx]]'' |
| 38 | |
| 39 | * Many dinosaurs have “-saurus” at the end, but some examples have this reversed: the hadrosaur ''Saurolophus'' ("crested lizard"), the ankylosaur ''Sauropelta'' ("armored lizard"), the carnosaur ''Saurophaganax'' ("king of lizard-eaters"), the sauropod ''Sauroposeidon'' ("[[Myth/GreekMythology Poseidon]] lizard")... and the deinonychosaur ''Saurornithoides'' (“pseudo-bird lizard”). This one was a close ''Troodon'' relative of Late Cretaceous Asia, and the original prototype of the maniraptoran family of Troodontids -- originally called "Saurornithoidids" indeed --. The Troodontids in turn used to traditionally be considered the sibling family of the dromaeosaurids: together they would make the supergroup of theropods named Deinonychosaurs, the subject of this folder. Since the 1980s the troodontid family has acquired several new relatives, usually from Cretaceous Asia as well: among them, ''Borogovia'' was named after a character from ''Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}'', while ''Tochisaurus'' means "Ostrich-lizard". ''Archaeornithoides'' ("ancient pseudo-bird") and ''Sinornithoides'' ("Chinese pseudo-bird") were both described in the early 1990s, and their names are clearly variations of "''Saurornithoides''", as well as that of ''Hesperornithoides'' ("Western pseudo-bird"), found in 2019 in North America. Other interesting discoveries were ''Sinovenator'' ("Chinese hunter"), described in 2002 and found in a coiled pose (the exact opposite of the famous "death pose", aka head and tail curved upwards); ''Byronosaurus'' ("Byron's lizard") with its peculiar teeth; ''Zanabazar'', which was believed a saurornithoid species; and ''Jinfengopteryx'' ("Jinfeng wing"), a "Liaoning theropod" which has left tracks of feathers. Other troodontids are cited below in the "Dinosaurs found with feathers” folder, ex. ''Mei long''. Given their fragile jaws and modest sickle-toeclaws, troodontids like ''Stenonychosaurus'' or ''Saurornithoides'' would have been able only to hunt small animals that could be swallowed whole, and weren't capable of severing the throat of an animal the size of ''Protoceratops'' unlike the more powerful dromaeosaurids: see the famous ''Velociraptor''/''Protoceratops'' skeleton. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | ---- |
| 42 | |
| 43 | '''Portmanteau?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saurornitholestes Saurornitholestes]]'' |
| 44 | |
| 45 | * ''Saurornithoides'' had a similar-named, similar-sized and similar-looking relative. But ''Saurornitholestes'' was ''not'' a troodontid, but one of the few dromaeosaurids known before the ''Film/JurassicPark'' year, 1993. Like ''Deinonychus'', it too was classified by Gregory Paul as another species of ''Velociraptor'', but this is not accepted anymore. It has not the suffix -raptor in this name, which resembles a {{Portmanteau}} of ''Saurornithoides'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Ornitholestes]]'', because it was found as early as in the 1970s -- a bit after the official description of the dromaeosaurid family. ''Saurornitholestes'' lived in Late Cretaceous North America together with ''Dromaeosaurus'' but before the aforementioned ''Dakotaraptor'' and ''Acheroraptor'', thus it didn't see ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' in life as well, but its smaller relatives like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Albertosaurus]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Gorgosaurus]]''; even though has left much more fossil material, it has not received the same level of attention in docu-media of ''Dromaeosaurus''. To some point of view, it has been luckier than ''Dromaeosaurus'', as the portrayal of a "miniature monster" involving the Stock Raptors has apparently spared ''Saurornitholestes''. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | ---- |
| 48 | |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder: Ornithomimosaurs & Oviraptorosaurs]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | ---- |
| 54 | |
| 55 | '''The Mimus Family:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garudimimus Garudimimus]]'' |
| 56 | |
| 57 | * Most ornithomimosaurs have been found in Asia: other than the gigantic ''Gallimimus'' and the [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter even more gigantic]] famously CreepilyLongArms ''Deinocheirus'' [[note]] Since ''Deinocheirus'' has had a very personal taxonomic story it has not received the Mimus suffix, and ''doesn't'' make a real exception to the rule.[[/note]], we can mention ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeornithomimus Archaeornithomimus]]'', meaning “ancient ''Ornithomimus''” because lived in early Cretaceous several million years before the latter: some alleged ''Archaeornithomimus'' remains were found in North America as well. Despite its earliness, its skeleton and size were very similar to the younger ''Ornithomimus'', ''Struthiomimus'', and ''Dromiceiomimus''. Then, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinornithomimus Sinornithomimus]]'' ("Chinese "Ornithomimus", a small-sized genus found in large numbers in China in the 2000s); ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anserimimus Anserimimus]]'' ("goose-mimic", but wasn't particularly similar to a goose; it's notable for the especially-strong forearms instead); ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornithomimus Aepyornithomimus]]'' ("[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs elephant bird]]-mimic"), described in 2017; and ''Garudimimus'', meaning “[[Myth/HinduMythology Garuda]]-mimic”, with primitive feet retaining the forth reversed toe, and blunter beak than most relatives. These were all archaic yet already toothless animals. Among them, ''Garudimimus'' is worth of note because some old books have shown it with a tall, narrow bony crest upon its head, making it resembling a cross between an ornithomimid and an oviraptorid. Actually, it was simply a misplaced bone from another portion of the skull. ''Garudimimus'' lived together with ''Gallimimus'' and ''Deinocheirus'' in Late Cretaceous Mongolia, and recent research shows it was one of the closest relatives of ''Deinocheirus'', which had also a rounded beak and the forth reversed toe on the feet like it. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | ---- |
| 60 | |
| 61 | '''Toothy Ostrich-Dinosaur:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelecanimimus Pelecanimimus]]'' |
| 62 | |
| 63 | * But even more basal ornithomimosaurs still retained small teeth. Among them, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpymimus Harpymimus]]'' ("[[Myth/GreekMythology harpy]]-mimic") from Middle Cretaceous Mongolia, had only few tiny teeth on the tip of its mouth. At the opposite end, the smallish ''Pelecanimimus polyodon'' of Early Cretaceous Spain had more teeth (220) than any other known theropod (''polyodon'' means "many teeth"), very small teeth if compared with a typical theropod -- a bit resembling the ''Troodon'' 's dentition. The name ''Pelecanimimus'' is more understandable than ''Dromiceiomimus'', just meaning “pelican mimic”. This because its skeleton, found in 1993 in an unexpected location for an ostrich-dinosaur (in Europe), was discovered with the print of a ''pelican-like gular pouch'' for uncertain purpose, and a small fleshy crest at the top of the skull too. This was the first prints of soft tissue found on an ornithomimosaur, and one of the very first in a birdlike theropod in general - slightly before the finding of the first feathered Liaoning theropod in 1996. At present, the oldest and most primitive ornithomimosaur is the Early Cretaceous South African ''Nqwebasaurus'', see "UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherSmallTheropods" for this one; since it was not recognized as an ornithomimosaur initially it has received the very generic suffix -saurus. Since the 2000s scientists have decided to break the rule naming deliberately some new ornithomimosaur genera with suffixes different than -mimus, ex. ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beishanlong Beishanlong]]'' (related with ''Deinocheirus'' and ''Garudimimus'' and large, only a bit smaller than ''Gallimimus'') and ''Hexing''. [[note]] ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdoraptor Valdoraptor]]'' of Early Cretaceous England fell in the usual “''Megalosaurus'' wastebasket” thing. Known only from part of a foot, this is enough to show it belongs to a European ornithomimosaur. Its name means "Weald robber" in reference to the region of South-Eastern England. Britain has gift more dinosaurs than every other European country: only to mention the most famous ones, the Early-Cretaceous ''Iguanodon'', ''Hypsilophodon'', ''Baryonyx'', ''Polacanthus'' & ''Hylaeosaurus''; the Middle-Jurassic ''Megalosaurus'' & ''Cetiosaurus''; the armored Early-Jurassic ''Scelidosaurus''; and the small ''Thecodontosaurus'' from Triassic. Among European countries, Germany holds the 2nd position with many Triassic dinosaurs such as ''Plateosaurus'' and ''Procompsognathus'' plus the two famous Late Jurassic ''Compsognathus'' & ''Archaeopteryx''. Other important dino-countries in Europe have been: France, whose dinosaurs are similar to the English and German ones (ex ''Compsognathus'' & ''Dacentrurus'', plus the alleged ''Hypselosaurus'' eggs); Portugal, which has revealed several Late Jurassic dinosaurs similar to those in North America and Africa; and Romania, from which come many Late Cretaceous small dinosaurs. But almost every European nation has left at least some dino-material, sometimes very important: for example the Italian ''Scipionyx'' and ''Tethyshadros'', the Spanish ''Pelecanimimus'' and ''Turiasaurus'', some ''Plateosaurus''es in Switzerland, the famed coal-mine ''Iguanodon''s in Belgium, and iguanodontian prints in Norway.[[/note]] ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timimus Timimus]]'' makes a particular case: from Early-Cretaceous Australia, it was initially described in the early 1990s as an ornithomimosaur, but being fragmentary, it is actually hard-to-classify. With a [[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6106/510.abstract description]] of the integument of ''Ornithomimus'' it is now known that ornithomimosaurs were feathered. As it turned out, not only did they have a down-like covering, which was expected, considering that they were more distantly related to birds than deinonychosaurs and oviraptorosaurs were, but the adult specimens also had shafted feathers on their forelimbs which seemed to form primordial wings. In addition, ''Pelecanimimus'' even though shows naked skin on its throat pouch and fleshy crest, some signs seem to indicate the presence of proto-feathers on its body, according to researches made after 1996 -- the year of the finding of "the first dinosaur with feathers in the rock", the compsognathid ''Sinosauropteryx''. This explains why ''Pelecanimimus'' didn't owe the record of "the first-found dinosaur with print of feathers". |
| 64 | |
| 65 | ---- |
| 66 | |
| 67 | '''Crest and Non-Crest:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinchenia Rinchenia]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchoraptor Conchoraptor]]'' |
| 68 | |
| 69 | * In modern media, the animal commonly known as "Oviraptor" (probably ''Citipati'') is usually portrayed with a rhombus-shaped bony crest on its skull-roof. However, in classic paleo-art several "Oviraptor"s appear without this feature, substituted by [[https://youtu.be/pQJIVxzIUic a small "horn" on their nose]]. These older portraits are based upon the original ''Oviraptor'' crushed skull found nearby the alleged ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Protoceratops]]'' eggs: this skull is actually crestless, but the shape assumed by the crushed bones did seem to show this horny bump, leading paleo-artists in error. Portraits also showed oviraptorids with a pair of small "teeth" protruding from their palate: in a time in which oviraptors were still considered specialist egg-eaters, these "palatine teeth" were said to be one definite proof about their alimentary habits, believed an adaptation to make holes into eggshells aiding the beak to open the nutritious eggs (just like the pharyngeal teeth of the modern [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasypeltis egg-eating snake]]); even though these "teeth" really existed (they've been found in fossils), their real purpose in life is still unknown. Also, don't forget that the egg-robbing theory has ''not'' been totally discarded; after all, some modern carnivorous mammals do eat the occasional unattended eggs if they have the chance -- the mongoose, the marten, the fox and the raccoon are small-sized examples, but even ''lions'' do sometimes this with ostrich eggs, not to mention the Egyptian Vulture which throws small stones to open them. One curious thing is that the informal name "Ovoraptor" (also meaning egg-thief) was once attributed to ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Velociraptor]]''. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_oviraptorosaur_research From 1920s up to the 1970s]] ''Oviraptor'' was the only known genus in its own theropod group. Several new oviraptorosaur genera were classified since the 1980s in Asia; many of them used to be put in the genus "Oviraptor" before that, for example the rhomboid-crested ''Citipati osmolskae'' (Osmolska was the Polish scientist who found it first) and the round-crested ''Rinchenia mongoliensis'', while other two have been found without any crest: ''Conchoraptor'' ("shell-robber") and "Ingenia" (now put in the genus ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyuannia Heyuannia]]'') were both announced in the 1980s as distinct genera than ''Oviraptor''. Several oviraptorid names end in "ia", like ''Luoyanggia'' and ''Nemegtomaia''. ''Heyuannia'' displays a suite of unique features, such as an unusual feature design and a strangely deep tail. However, it later turned out that its original name, ''Ingenia'', was already used for a nematode (a small invertebrate), and so the dinosaur received a new name in 2013, "Ajancingenia". However, some think that too much controversy surrounds the new name for it to be used. Also, in the eighties it was briefly proposed the theory that oviraptorosaurs were shellfish-crushers, always because of the shape of their jaws. One of the most interesting recently-found oviraptorosaurs is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomingia Nomingia]]'': found in 2000 in Mongolia, its vertebrae at the end of its short tail were fused together, just like the "pygostyle" of modern birds. In 2013, a pygostyle has also been found in ''Conchoraptor'' and ''Citipati'' itself. Oviraptorosaurs also included some of the smallest non-bird dinosaurs, and the earliest ones (from Early Cretaceous) preserved teeth as a primitive trait. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | ---- |
| 72 | |
| 73 | '''Science Marches On:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirostenotes Chirostenotes]]'' |
| 74 | |
| 75 | * There is, however, one genus which has been known from North America since the 1910s, but was recognized as an ''Oviraptor'' relative only in the 1980s: ''Chirostenotes'', to this day still one of the few oviraptorosaurs outside Asia. Despite this “privileged” position, living alongside several late Cretaceous [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Stock Dinosaurs]] of North America, ''Chirostenotes'' tend to be overshadowed by ornithomimids in paleo-artistic portraits. It has also had one of the most convoluted ScienceMarchesOn stories among all dinosaurs. Since it was originally named based on a lone hand (its name means "narrow-handed one"), it was initially considered a “generic toothed coelurosaur”: toothed jaws once assigned to it were renamed ''Richardoestesia'' in 1990 (this odd name comes from Richard Estes, a palaeontologist). The foot was found in 1936, named ''Macrophalangia'', meaning "big toes", and considered an ornithomimosaur. Its toothless jaws were found in 1940, but was named ''Caenagnathus'' ("recent jaws") and believed to be a bird. In 1981, the discovery of the Mongolian ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmisaurus Elmisaurus]]'' ("foot reptile") suggested that all these dinosaurs were related. In 1988, a complete skeleton of ''Chirostenotes'' was found, which showed that "''Macrophalangia''" & “''Caenagnathus''” were the same as ''Chirostenotes'', and these two names fell in disuse, being named more recently than ''Chirostenotes''. A 2007 analysis suggested ''Caenagnthus'' really is distinct, but this is highly contentious. There is also an astounding analogy between the ''Chirostenotes'' and the ''Oviraptor'' ScienceMarchesOn stories. The former, too, was depicted with only a small bump on its nose in old portraits; but the skull used as model was incomplete, and now the dinosaur is thought to have had a large round crest similar to that of ''Rinchenia''. |
| 76 | |
| 77 | ---- |
| 78 | |
| 79 | '''Tiny Hunter:''' |
| 80 | ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvenator Microvenator]]'' |
| 81 | |
| 82 | * Other two North American Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaurs recently-found were larger than ''Chirostenotes'': ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagryphus Hagryphus]]'' and ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzu_(dinosaur) Anzu]]''. One of the shortest-named non-avian dinosaurs (even shorter than that of the ankylosaur ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Minmi]]''), ''Anzu'' is named after an ancient Mesopotamian demon; it is to date the biggest known oviraptorosaur of North America, and the second in the world after the famous Asian ''Gigantoraptor'' -- but was still much smaller than the latter, about the size of a big specimen of ''Ornithomimus''. ''Hagryphus'' was only a bit smaller than ''Anzu''. Another North American oviraptor relative was much smaller than both, but compensating this, has been known for a much longer time: ''Microvenator''. Meaning "small hunter", it lived before ''Chirostenotes'', ''Anzu'' & ''Hagryphus'', in Early Cretaceous, sharing its habitat with the famous ''Deinonychus''. Like ''Chirostenotes'', ''Microvenator'' has had a peculiar scientific story. It was originally named "Megadontosaurus" ("big-toothed reptile"), as the teeth of the larger ''Deinonychus'' were originally assigned to it. This name was never made official, however. When it was officially named in 1970 it was considered a generic coelurosaur. Later, it was found to be an early oviraptorosaur, possibly close to ''Chirostenotes''. Because of its much smaller size than the latter, some thought the ''Microvenator'' remain was from a juvenile. Sadly, as the skull was never found apart from the toothless lower jaw, we don't know if it was head-crested like ''Chirostenotes''. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | ---- |
| 85 | |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder: Therizinosaurs & Alvarezsaurs]] |
| 89 | |
| 90 | ---- |
| 91 | |
| 92 | '''Converted to Veganism:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothronychus Nothronychus]]'' |
| 93 | |
| 94 | * Today, therizinosaurs, or segnosaurs if you're more traditional, are a better-known group than in the past, but still with few kinds described, both large and small. Among the large ones, all Late Cretaceous, most have been found in Asia, just like ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Segnosaurus]]'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Therizinosaurus]]'': examples are ''Enigmosaurus'' and ''Erlikosaurus'' from Mongolia and ''Nanshiungosaurus'' from China. Only one large-sized therizinosaur is known so far from North America: ''Nothronychus'' ("sloth-claw"). Found in 2001, this one lived at the start of the Late Cretaceous, before the most-famous North American herbivores like the ceratopsids and the hadrosaurs: competition with them could have led it to its early extinction. ''Nothronychus'' is notable for its long slim neck, and like the other segnosaurs it's often depicted in a semi-erect posture, unlike most non-bird theropods which were more horizontally-bodied. Note that modern birds also can keep their bodies more or less upright according to the species -- think about the difference between an ostrich, a chicken, a goose, and a penguin, or also between a falcon and an owl. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | ---- |
| 97 | |
| 98 | '''Small Therizinosaurs:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alxasaurus Alxasaurus]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcarius Falcarius]]'' |
| 99 | |
| 100 | * Among small therizinosaurs, all Early Cretaceous, other than the 4 m long ''Alxasaurus'' and the 2.5 m long feathered ''Beipiaosaurus'' found in Liaoning, worthy of note is the small North American ''Falcarius'' -- found in 2005, this one has left us with a whole graveyard containing ''hundreds'' of specimens. While the first two were rather evolved and shared typical therizinosaurian traits, ''Falcarius'' (the "scythe-bearer") has a slender structure more similar to a typical coelurosaur and was perhaps omnivorous. Maybe the most ancient therizinosaur is ''Eshanosaurus'' from the Early Jurassic of China, but its collocation in this group is highly controversial, and it may be a sauropod relative instead. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | ---- |
| 103 | |
| 104 | '''One-Fingered Hands:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvarezsaurus Alvarezsaurus]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuvuuia Shuvuuia]]'' |
| 105 | |
| 106 | * Let's go discover the relatives of ''Mononykus''. Before, it's interesting to say that ''Mononykus'' was initially called “''Mononychus''”, but that name was already taken by an insect (a modern beetle to be precise). ''Mononykus'' was an enigmatic animal merely 90 cm long (smaller than the 1.5 m long ''Avimimus''), and astonished the scientists who found it because of its odd one-clawed hands: indeed, both "Mononychus" and "Mononykus" mean "one claw" in Greek. One close relative, ''Shuvuuia'' ("shuvuu" just means “bird” in Mongolian), was a close relative found in 1999, and lived alongside ''Mononykus''. Its full name, ''Shuvuuia deserti'', means "desert bird" because it was found in the Gobi Desert. Unlike the mononykus, ''Shuvuuia'' has left some cranial remains, which show tiny teeth and a uniquely mobile upper jaw: unlike all other nonbird dinosaurs, but totally similar to modern birds. But this discovery has only made the way of life of the alvarezsaurs even more enigmatic. These two dinosaurs, along with other relatives, form the Alvarezsaurids. This was a Cretaceous family of Jurassic origins named after ''Alvarezsaurus'', a more primitive South American genus discovered incidentally in the same year as ''Mononykus''. ''Alvarezsaurus'''s Spanish name means "Alvarez's lizard": despite its primitiveness, it already had one-claw hands, and its remains were incidentally found near a local Nature Museum! It’s significant that because of its incompleteness ''Alvarezsaurus'' was initially thought [[ScienceMarchesOn a late-surviving ceratosaur that convergently became similar to an ornithomimid]], and originally depicted with toothless jaws, three-fingered hands, but also a very long tail twice the length of the rest of the body. Whereas ''Mononykus'' was at first identified as a sort of ''running bird'', closer to a sparrow than ''Archaeopteryx'' was: that's why it has unusually been depicted feathered since its original description in spite of having not left prints of feathers (''Shuvuuia'' on the other hand has left some tracks of feathers in the rock). Probably it was their one-fingered arms, resembling the wing-skeleton of a bird, that given to ''Mononykus'' and ''Shuvuuia'' the original classification as long-tailed flightless birds, something between ''Archaeopteryx'' and ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Ichthyornis/Hesperornis]]''. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | ---- |
| 109 | |
| 110 | '''The Onykus Family:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonykus Patagonykus]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratonykus Ceratonykus]]'' |
| 111 | |
| 112 | * Actually, the classification of the whole family of the alvarezsaurids has always been very problematic: alvarezsaurs have been variably put next to ornithomimids, to troodontids, or to ''Archaeopteryx'' (in this case, they would really be very primitive birds); this is because their specialized hands made comparisons with other theropods a difficult task. However, the discovery in 2010 of a basal relative called ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplocheirus Haplocheirus]]'' with a complete, three-fingered hand has since confirmed alvarezsaurs as non-avian maniraptors, slightly more advanced than therizinosaurs. Also note that, since “''Mononychus''” was changed to “''Mononykus''” in the same year of the first description, most alvarezsaurid genera have since called with the suffix –''onykus'' or -''nykus'', in a real-life FollowTheLeader example: ''Patagonykus'' from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Patagonia]], ''Ceratonykus'' ("cerato" means horn in Greek), and so on. One of them has been found in Alberta, living alongside many popular Late Cretaceous dinosaurs: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertonykus Albertonykus]]''. |
| 113 | |
| 114 | ---- |
| 115 | |
| 116 | '''Small or Big?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvicursor Parvicursor]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapator Rapator]]'' |
| 117 | |
| 118 | * Alvarezsaurids also include one of the smallest non-bird dinosaurs ever: ''Parvicursor remotus'' ("remote small runner") was only one foot long and the same size of the more famed ''Anchiornis''. It's interesting to note that, unlike most other coelurosaurian groups, the alvarezsaurs failed to produce any truly giant members: ''Rapator ornitholestoides'' ("''Ornitholestes''-like plunderer") from Early Cretaceous Australia was thought by some to be a giant alvarezsaur, but is instead a [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeLargeTheropods megaraptoran]]. One possible synonym of ''Rapator'' is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walgettosuchus Walgettosuchus]]'', described in Australia in the same year of ''Rapator'' (1932). Both are known from scanty remains. The classification of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycneme Bradycneme]]'' ("slow leg"), a poorly-known fossil from Late Cretaceous Romania, has changed a lot throughout the history: originally classified in 1975 as a giant prehistoric owl, and then a dromaeosaurid, recent researches indicate it was an European member of the alvarezsaurids. An almost-identical fate happened to ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptasteornis Heptasteornis]]'' ("hepta" = 7 in Greek), another poorly-known fossil from Late Cretaceous Romania equally described in 1975, initially classified as a giant owl and then a troodontid. ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elopteryx Elopteryx]]'' described in the early XX century from the same fauna was once confused with ''Bradycneme'' and ''Heptasteornis'' and was also thought a pelican-like bird, but now seems to be a maniraptoran. |
| 119 | |
| 120 | ---- |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Dinosaurs found with Feathers]] |
| 125 | |
| 126 | ---- |
| 127 | |
| 128 | '''The First-found Feathers in the Rocks''' |
| 129 | |
| 130 | * The first unequivocal [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaur non-avian dinosaur fossils with actual feathers preserved]] came to light in the second half of the 1990s in Liaoning (province of China). They were extraordinarily well-preserved, better than almost any other known dinosaur fossil; they were all small-sized (the biggest was only 8 ft long); they hailed from the Early Cretaceous unlike the Late Cretaceous ''Avimimus'', ''Mononykus'', and ''Shuvuuia'', and sometimes from Late Jurassic; and they represented almost all of the main coelurosaur subgroups, giving a sort of snapshot of the coelurosaurian fauna of the time. More than 30 genera have been described so far, and others could still join them in the future: we’ll mention only some examples here. ''Sinosauropteryx prima'' (appropriately “first feathered lizard from China”) was the first to be discovered (1996); a [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherSmallTheropods compsognathid]], it was the very first non-avian dinosaur to have shown prints of feathers; being it was a non-maniraptoran coelurosaur, these were still down-like, unlike modern feathers. The very first Liaoning coelurosaurs, discovered with vaned feathers in 1997 and 1998, were much closer to birds: these were ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protarchaeopteryx Protarchaeopteryx]]'' (“First ''Archaeopteryx''”) and ''Caudipteryx'' (“feathered tail”). Both were basal oviraptorosaurs somewhat similar to ''Avimimus'', but only 2-3 ft long and with teeth; they had pennaceous feathers on their forearms and their tail feathers were homologous to those of the famous ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Archaeopteryx]]'': not casually, these three dinosaurs have been named with the suffix -pteryx. However, the wing-feathers of ''Caudipteryx'' and ''Protarchaeopteryx'' were short and symmetrical, unlike those of true birds, and thus totally unsuitable for flight. Soon after, the list of feathered dinosaur fossils increased dramatically each year. The herbivorous ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beipiaosaurus Beipiaosaurus]]'' (''Beipiaosaurus inexpectus'' = "unexpected lizard of Bei-Piao") is perhaps the most specialized among them, being a small therizinosaur (2.4 m/8 ft long) with a down-like covering and some thin feathers on its forearm. Two ''Beipiaosaurus''es named Loofah & Doofah, named "yellow bellies", appear in [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTimeXIIITheWisdomOfFriends The Land Before Time 13]]. In 2004, ''even a feathered tyrannosauroid'' was discovered: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilong_(dinosaur) Dilong]]'', a slender coelurosaur with little external resemblance to a ''T. rex'', preserving some down-like feathers. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | ---- |
| 133 | |
| 134 | '''Feathers from China''' |
| 135 | |
| 136 | * Other Liaoning coelurosaurs showed up in the third episode "Dino-Birds" of the miniseries ''Series/PrehistoricPark''. The chosen ones were: the buck-toothed oviraptorosaur ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incisivosaurus Incisivosaurus]]'' ("incisor lizard") because of its [[RuleOfFunny funny look]], the troodontid ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mei_(dinosaur) Mei]]'' ("the sleeping one" in Chinese), [[note]] This one has until 2015 detained the record of “the shortest-named dino” along with the alvarezsaurid ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kol_(dinosaur) Kol]]'' and the sauropod ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeSauropods Zby]]'' - the former record-holders were the Australian ankylosaur ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Minmi]]'' and the oviraptorosaur ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaan Khaan]]'', the current one is the scansoriopterygid ''Yi'', see below. [[/note]] and, naturally, the ever-present ''Microraptor''. Note, however, that fossils of ''Incisivosaurus'' and ''Mei'' have not yet been found preserving soft tissues, unlike the other dinosaurs listed here. Nonetheless, being maniraptors, they almost certainly had feathers. Also, ''Microraptor'' is known from a younger formation than the other dinosaurs mentioned here. Finally, some think that ''Incisivosaurus'' (known only from a skull) may be the same as ''Protarchaeopteryx'', known from a skeleton with a badly damaged skull. In “Dino-Birds”, Nigel Marven makes a TimeTravel to the Cretaceous China to save some ''Microraptor''s from extinction; before ending the mission, he encounters several ''Mei'' (referred to by their whole scientific name: ''Mei long'', lit. "sleeping dragon") apparently sleeping in the same bird-like position in which the type specimen was found fossilized (they were actually dead), while the other ''Mei long'' act as the “danger of the forest”, and to fit their fearsome better role, are [[RuleOfCool oversized]] [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology and lack feathers]]. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | ---- |
| 139 | |
| 140 | '''The Chinese Compy:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinosauropteryx Sinosauropteryx]]'' |
| 141 | |
| 142 | * ''Sinosauropteryx prima'' means "first feathered Chinese lizard": indeed, it was the very first non-bird dinosaur found with prints of "feathers" in the rocks. This happened in 1996, one year after the discovery of its relative ''Scipionyx'' in Southern Italy. Unlike the latter it didn't preserved tracks of internal organs, but signs of feathered skin with even some remains of the original colors: these colors, however, were strongly faded since 120 my of fossilization, see below. ''Sinosauropteryx'' was very small like its European cousin, and was just as agile as a hunter of little preys: it lived alongside many other dinosaurs, among them the "parrot dinosaur" ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursOrnithischianDinosaurs Psittacosaurus]]'', too large to be one of its meals despite being smaller than an adult human when grown up. It's worthy of note that before the 1990s the compsognathids included only one member, ''Compsognathus'' indeed -- ''Procompsognathus'', despite the name, has been considered a member of the much more archaic coelophysoids. Other real or putative compsognathids include English ''Aristosuchus'' ("noble croc", known since the start of the XX century), and the more-recently-discovered ''Huaxiagnathus'' (a Chinese kind from Early Cretaceous), ''Mirischia'' (whose pelvis was unusually asymmetrical), ''Sinosauropteryx'', and the similarly-named ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinocalliopteryx Sinocalliopteryx gigas]]''. The latest one when discovered was the biggest (2.7 m/9 ft long, almost like a ''Coelophysis'') dinosaur found with feathers, beating the traditional record holder ''Beipiaosaurus'' -- "''gigas''" means giant in Greek, for compsognathid standards of course -- before the "feathered tyrannosaur" ''Yutyrannus'' was discovered in 2011, which was about the size of an ''Albertosaurus''. |
| 143 | |
| 144 | ---- |
| 145 | |
| 146 | '''Ancient Rooster:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caudipteryx Caudipteryx]]'' |
| 147 | |
| 148 | * ''Ptero'' and ''Pteryx'' mean "wing" or "feather" in Greek: think about the [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeNonDinosaurianReptiles pterosaurs]] like ''Pteranodon'' and ''Pterodactylus'', or the less-known ''Pterodaustro'' and ''Dsungaripterus''. ''Caudipteryx'' means "feathered tail"; only 3 feet long, it was one of the smallest non-avian dinosaurs known, and one of the most chicken-looking of them all: short blunt beak with tiny teeth only in the tip of its upper jaw, long neck, short trunk, long running legs, and very short tail -- its skeleton really recalls that of a modern ground bird, even more than that of the very similar 5 ft long toothless relative ''Avimimus'' found at the start of TheEighties in the Republic of Mongolia. A small primitive ''Oviraptor'' relative like the latter but smaller and earlier (Early Cretaceous), it was found in the near People's Republic of China -- about in the same time of ''Sinosauropteryx'', fairly before the TurnOfTheMillennium. Its fame is due to the fact that it was the first non-bird dinosaur outside ''Archaeopteryx'' found with ''true'' vaned feathers, especially in its stubby tail (hence its name), and in its forearms. However, its feathers were not suited to fly, being symmetrical: this animal was probably a sort of ancient roadrunner or pheasant, catching small prey or eating fruit/seed from the ground, but able to flee from predators only by running away from them (unlike these birds that ''are'' apt to fly if necessary). |
| 149 | |
| 150 | ---- |
| 151 | |
| 152 | '''Cross between Archaeopteryx and Velociraptor?''' the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoraptor Archaeoraptor]]" fake |
| 153 | |
| 154 | * We've already talked about ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Microraptor]]'' in the Stock Dinosaurs page; here we can add some other information about it. Over the years, several interesting specimens of this dinosaur have been found. One of these was originally named ''Cryptovolans'' ("hidden flyer") in 2002 and thought to be different from ''Microraptor'' due to a few seemingly unique features (a longer tail, for example). Further work showed that they are all present in ''Microraptor'', and so "''Cryptovolans''" fell into disuse. A specimen announced in 2011 provides a clue to its diet: this one seems to preserve the remains of an [[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeBirds enantiornithine bird]] in its stomach. A specimen published in 2013 shows it ate fish. As remarkable as those stories are, they don't come even close to a 2012 study carried out on one specimen. This study showed that its feathers were likely iridescent in color, troubling a previous suggestion it was nocturnal. But there is another, even more striking story to be told about ''Microraptor''. Before being discovered properly, the tail of one specimen had been mixed with the front end of a true bird found in Liaoning, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanornis Yanornis]]''; the so-created MixAndMatchCritter was published in media as a new kind of bird-dinosaur, “''Archaeoraptor''” ("ancient plunderer"), but this hoax was exposed after qualified scientists studied the specimen -- in fact the world-''in''famous ''National Geographic'' article that published the fake was so hastily put-together, they didn't even ''bother'' to check if it was a true fossil or not... leading to one of the biggest controversies of modern paleontology. But although “''Archaeoraptor''” itself didn't exist, its tail belonged to a real animal, one that redefined our understanding of dinosaurs even more than an actual “''Archaeoraptor''” would have. This is an often-overlooked detail, especially by creationists and conspiracy theorists who still can't let go of the controversy. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | ---- |
| 157 | |
| 158 | '''Venomous Bite?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinornithosaurus Sinornithosaurus]]'' |
| 159 | |
| 160 | * Other feathered, gliding maniraptors from China make together the clade Microraptoria within the Dromaeosaurids. ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changyuraptor Changyuraptor]]'' was very similar to ''Microraptor'' but twice the length of it, and today is the biggest gliding dromaeosaurid known. ''Sinornithosaurus'' ("Chinese bird-lizard", not to be confused with ''Sinornithomimus'' which was an ornithomimosaur, or ''Sinornithoides'' which was a troodontid) was between ''Microraptor'' and ''Changyuraptor'' in size. Found in 1999, thus one of the first-found feathered dinosaurs (one year before the more famed ''Microraptor''), it could be described as the ''Microraptor's'' DarkerAndEdgier cousin. This because a noteworthy controversy surrounding ''Sinornithosaurus'' was the idea that it may have been ''venomous''. Upon its discovery, people had noticed a series of grooves running down its fang-like teeth, which bore a strong resemblance to those of the venomous Gila monster lizard. This led them to believe that it may have had a venomous bite. The same happened to an unrelated small theropod, the much more primitive ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeOtherSmallTheropods Scipionyx]]''. For bonus points, they found what appeared to be a venom sac meant to pump the venom into the prey item's body. As [[RuleOfCool awesome]] as this theory was, it was [[ScienceMarchesOn shot down]] after merely a year of being put forward. But that doesn't make its actual hunting strategy any less awesome; ''Sinornithosaurus'' was likely the one raptor that most resembled modern [[NobleBirdOfPrey raptors]]. It is believed to have been a predator that spent much of its time in the trees, [[DeathFromAbove launching attacks on small animals from above]]. Another interesting thing about ''Sinornithosaurus'' is that, like ''Anchiornis'' below and ''Sinosauropteryx'' above, tracks of colors have been discovered; ''Sinornithosaurus'' would likely have been [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife brightly adorned]] [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver with varying shades of orange, red, yellow, black and grey]]. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | ---- |
| 163 | |
| 164 | '''Colorful Little Guy:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchiornis Anchiornis]]'' |
| 165 | |
| 166 | * Still another, just as extraordinary Liaoning discovery has come in 2009 from Jurassic rocks: ''Anchiornis huxleyi'' (literally “Huxley's near bird”). This pigeon-sized animal, once believed a troodontid or similar form, has often been referenced as the smallest non-avian dinosaur known, but this record is actually contended by other theropods, for example another Liaoning putative troodontid found in 2013, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eosinopteryx Eosinopteryx brevipenna]]'' (''brevipenna'' = short feather) -- which was interesting because it uniquely has not any sickle-claw in its foot unlike troodonts. Recently, these two animals are put in their own family, Anchiornithidae, together with ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedopenna Pedopenna]]'' and some other animals mentioned in UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeBirds. The great interest surrounding ''Anchiornis'' is due to another detail: it has, amazingly, preserved not only its whole plumage, but ''even the original colors''. Since colors have almost never preserved in vertebrate fossil record, it’s easy to understand the extraordinariness of such a discovery. Even though the aforementioned ''Sinosauropteryx'' and ''Caudipteryx'' have left some traces of color, as did other dinosaur fossils, such as the recently-found ankylosaur ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeAnkylosaurs Borealopelta]]'', the famous basal ceratopsian ''Psittacosaurus'', the basal bird ''[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLifeBirds Confuciusornis]]'', and the dromaeosaurid ''Sinornithosaurus'', ''Anchiornis'' remains the one with the most well-preserved colors, and it is almost the only non-avian dinosaur whose precise appearance is known with a reasonable degree of sureness. ''However'', since fossilization processes often change the original patterns of live animals, the ''true'' colors of ''Anchiornis'' etc. could possibly have faded or even changed a fair bit in 160 million years. We may never know how close our restorations are. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | ---- |
| 169 | |
| 170 | '''Extralarge Fingers:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansoriopteryx Scansoriopteryx]]'' & ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidexipteryx Epidexipteryx]]'' |
| 171 | |
| 172 | * Scansoriopterygids ("climbing wings") were pigeon-sized animals from the latest part of the Middle Jurassic, although some thought they were as young as the Early Cretaceous. They had a body-plan apt for climbing, similar to ''Microraptor'', or rather, even more specialized; they had forelimbs ''longer'' than their hindlimbs. First discovered in 2002, they have been found with feather prints around their body like many other Chinese coelurosaurs, but their placement within the phylogenetic tree is fairly uncertain. Most early analyses place them as early birds, but they could very easily be early relatives of deinonychosaurs & birds or even early oviraptorosaurs. Before 2015 only juvenile specimens are known from the few species of scansoriopterygids described, and some of their peculiar traits described above might just be juvenile-related and were lost in adults. The tiny stubby-tailed ''Epidexipteryx'' found in Inner Mongolia shows strange tail-feathers, and once contended the “smallest non-avian dinosaur” record with ''Anchiornis''; this one and the namesake ''Scansoriopteryx'' (the first-found one, this time in Liaoning, with a longer tail) were the only two species recognized for a long time: a third genus, "Epidendrosaurus" ("lizard on the trees"), has been synonymized with ''Scansoriopteryx'', and there are those who still prefer that name. But see below. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | ---- |
| 175 | |
| 176 | '''Feathered Dragon or Bat-Bird?:''' ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_%28dinosaur%29 Yi]]'' |
| 177 | |
| 178 | * Formally described on April 29 2015 ([[OlderThanTheyThink though originally discovered in 2007]]), ''Yi'' is a quite recent find from China, not Liaoning but the Hebei province this time, and it's surely a very exciting one. And not because it has currently the shortest scientific name of any dinosaur (and the shortest possible name for every animal), both if you count the ''genus'' name alone and the ''genus+species'' names together: ''Yi qi'' (lit. "strange wing"), which sounds like "ee chee". This scansoriopterygid, more similar to ''Epidexipteryx'' than to ''Scansoriopteryx'', was discovered to have had long, leathery batlike wings stretched out along its extremely long fingers. Perhaps not incidentally, its name sounds very similar to that of one species of modern mammalian true bat known to science long before its discovery: ''Ia io'', the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ia_io Great Evening Bat]], widespread in China other than in other Asian regions. Its dinosaurian almost-namesake ''Yi qi'' shows a new bone that likely supported most of the wing: this new bone was much longer than most of its arm, far too long to just be a broken ulna, meaning that this unique wing structure was the real deal. As a result, this little guy was likely the triumphant example of the DinosaursAreDragons trope, resembling something of a [[ShoulderSizedDragon tiny]] [[FeatheredDragons feathered]] [[OurWyvernsAreDifferent wyvern]]. Significantly, these [[http://theropoda.blogspot.it/2008/10/super-theropod-week-part-1.html membraneous wings were predicted to be present on other scansoriopterygids]] - it is possible that ''Epidexipteryx'' and ''Scansoriopteryx'' had membranous wings also - years before ''Yi'' was described. It has been theorized that ''Yi qi'' and the other scansoriopterygids represented an alternate path in theropod evolution that developed skinny, bat-like wings instead of long feathery ones. Had this kind of flight proven to be more effective for theropods than the feathers, birds could very well have evolved [[WhatCouldHaveBeen to look something like living dragons]]. |
| 179 | |
| 180 | ---- |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext UsefulNotes / PrehistoricLifeBirdlikeTheropods
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
