British and American researchers have found in Asia a new species of dinosaur that they have namedLinheraptor exquisiteand that belongs to thevelociraptor family. The study on the fossil has been led by Xu Xing, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is published in the journalZootaxa.
The fossil remains were discovered during a 2008 expedition in Inner Mongolia (China) by Jonah Chroiniere, a doctoral student at George Washington University (United States), and Michael D. Pittman, a student at University College London (United Kingdom). They wereisburied in 75-million-year-old red sandstone rocks. As Chroiniere explains, “I only saw the tip of the claw sticking out of a cliff and it was a total surprise that the entire skeleton was buried inside the rock.” This fossil will help to understand the evolution of the skeleton in the group that includes theVelocirraptor, that is, the family of theDromeosaurios.
TheLinheraptor I was about2.4 meters longand weighed just over 22 kilograms, and scientists believe it was aagile and fast predatorthat fed on small horned dinosaurs related to theTriceratops. Like other dromaeosaurs it possessed along curved hoof on the legs, which they could have used to capture their prey.
Dromaeosaurs are a family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous. Besides ofLinheraptor and theVelocirraptor, theropod dinosaurs include the recently discoveredTsaagan sleevesand totyrannosaurus rex.
