Smithsonian: Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds
Smithsonian has a story about the discovery of a small dinosaur that sheds light on the origin of birds. While excavating a Supersaurus nicknamed "Jimbo", Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist spotted some small bones amongst the enormous bones. Named Hesperornithoides miessleri, the animal lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic. The specimen is referred to as "Lori", after volunteer Lori Hockemeyer, who was involved in the 2001 find. All the details are in a paper published in the journal PeerJ.
At first, Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist Jessica Lippincott says, it seemed like the remains might belong to a flying pterosaur—a non-dinosaur reptile that lived during the same time. But further examination revealed that the bones represent something never seen before: a new species of raptor-like dinosaur, the oldest yet found in North America. “We have the smallest dinosaur and the largest dinosaur found in Wyoming, both in the same quarry,” Lippincott says.
Those bones, representing a partial skeleton, were used to name the new dinosaur Hesperornithoides miessleri today in the journal PeerJ. Described by University of Wisconsin-Madison paleontologist and artist Scott Hartman and colleagues, this dinosaur is categorized as an early member of a group of svelte, small, sickle-clawed dinosaurs known to experts as troodontids. These were raptor-like dinosaurs related to the group that contains more famous carnivores like Velociraptor, as well as the forerunners of birds.
Found in the roughly 150 million-year-old rock of the western United States’ Morrison Formation, Hesperornithoides adds to a growing theme. Even though big dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Apatosaurus have been known from the Morrison Formation for over a hundred years, experts are only just now filling out the ranks of smaller species that lived at the same time. “Hesperornithoides is a stark reminder to paleontologists that little gems can be found hidden away in these same layers of rock,” says University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky.
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Smithsonian: Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds
Smithsonian has a story about the discovery of a small dinosaur that sheds light on the origin of birds. While excavating a Supersaurus nicknamed "Jimbo", Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist spotted some small bones amongst the enormous bones. Named Hesperornithoides miessleri, the animal lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic. The specimen is referred to as "Lori", after volunteer Lori Hockemeyer, who was involved in the 2001 find. All the details are in a paper published in the journal PeerJ.
At first, Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist Jessica Lippincott says, it seemed like the remains might belong to a flying pterosaur—a non-dinosaur reptile that lived during the same time. But further examination revealed that the bones represent something never seen before: a new species of raptor-like dinosaur, the oldest yet found in North America. “We have the smallest dinosaur and the largest dinosaur found in Wyoming, both in the same quarry,” Lippincott says.
Those bones, representing a partial skeleton, were used to name the new dinosaur Hesperornithoides miessleri today in the journal PeerJ. Described by University of Wisconsin-Madison paleontologist and artist Scott Hartman and colleagues, this dinosaur is categorized as an early member of a group of svelte, small, sickle-clawed dinosaurs known to experts as troodontids. These were raptor-like dinosaurs related to the group that contains more famous carnivores like Velociraptor, as well as the forerunners of birds.
Found in the roughly 150 million-year-old rock of the western United States’ Morrison Formation, Hesperornithoides adds to a growing theme. Even though big dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus, Allosaurus and Apatosaurus have been known from the Morrison Formation for over a hundred years, experts are only just now filling out the ranks of smaller species that lived at the same time. “Hesperornithoides is a stark reminder to paleontologists that little gems can be found hidden away in these same layers of rock,” says University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky.
