Sentences with word «troodontid»
Up until then, the vast majority of troodontid specimens found in North America had been classified as Troodon formosus.
sciencedaily.com
The identification of a new species of troodontid in the Late Cretaceous of North America indicates that small dinosaur diversity in the latest Cretaceous of North America is likely underestimated due to the difficulty of identifying species from fragmentary fossils.
«It's about fifty per cent larger than any other troodontids previously known, making it one of the largest deinonychosaurs (raptor like dinosaurs) we currently recognize.»
«In particular, we found that the earliest birds were very similar to the earliest troodontids, a kind of maniraptorans.»
Many aspects of this reproduction mode trace their origin to theropod dinosaurs such as Oviraptors and Troodontids, but not really beyond them to more distantly related dinosaurs,» according to Varricchio.
In June 2014, van der Reest discovered an intact troodontid pelvis in Dinosaur Provincial Park, leading him to take a closer look at previously collected troodontid cranial bones from southern Alberta.
«This new species is the largest of the troodontids ever found anywhere in the world, standing nearly two metres at the head and close to 3.5 metres long,» van der Reest said.
«Researchers with other specimens now have two new species for comparison, widening our ability to understand the Troodontid family tree in North America.»
The paper, «Troodontids (Theropoda) from the Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, with a description of a unique new taxon: implications for deinonychosaur diversity in North America «is published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
Later work confirmed that birds share dozens of anatomical features with theropods, and are especially similar to two families, the dromaeosaurs (including deinonychus) and troodontids.
The oldest and most primitive troodontid yet found, Sinovenator exhibits several featuresits small size, for examplethat do not appear in later troodontids but do appear in dromaeosaurids (close relatives of birds) and birds themselves.
According to the report, the novel beast belongs to the troodontid family of dinosaurs and suggests that certain birdlike features arose far earlier than scientists had suspected.
Troodontids, the researchers say, eventually lost these characteristics as they became bigger.