Life reconstruction of Overoraptor chimentoi. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.
SciNews has a story about a new bird-like dinosaur. Discovered in Argentina, Overoraptor chimentoi lived about 90 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period, in what is now Patagonia. All the details on this dinosaur can be read in a paper published in the journal Nature.
The fossilized remains of Overoraptor chimentoi were recovered from the beds of the Huincul Formation in the Patagonian province of Rio Negro. The specimens were found in association with crocodilian and turtle bones.
“There are characteristics that distinguish Overoraptor chimentoi from the unenlagiid theropods of Argentina as well as from non-South American raptors such as Velociraptor,” said Dr. Fernando Novas, also from the CONICET and the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences ‘Bernardino Rivadavia.’
“When analyzing its arms, we found avian features related to the flight. This leads us to consider that in a phylogenetic tree, Overoraptor chimentoi is closer to birds than most of the raptors known so far.”
“Our hypothesis is that in the case of Overoraptor chimentoi, its ability to automatically fold the wings must have had a different function than it does in flying birds, given it is a running animal,” Motta added.
“It is possible that the dinosaur’s arms had the role of guaranteeing balance during the race — by providing greater balance and precision — thanks to the possibility of moving them in a consistent manner, as happens in running birds such as the rhea or ostriches.”
