Posted on 03/20/2010 9:11:31 AM PDT by JoeProBono
Like a zombie clawing its way out of the grave, a new dinosaur species was discovered when scientists spotted a hand bone protruding from a cliff in the Gobi desert of Inner Mongolia, paleontologists have announced.
Called Linheraptor exquisitus, the new dinosaur is a raptor, a type of two-legged meat-eater, that lived during the late Cretaceous period in what is now northeastern China
"We were looking at these very tall red sandstone walls that were all abraded by the wind, and I saw this claw sticking out of the side of the cliff," recalls Jonah Choiniere, a grad student at George Washington University in Washington D.C. who found the fossil on a dig in 2008.
The claw wasn't protruding much: Less than a fingertip's worth of the bone was exposed. But further investigation revealed "bone after bone," Choiniere said, until the team had unearthed a nearly complete skeleton—one of the most complete raptor fossils ever found.
It was fortunate the team found the fossil when they did, Choiniere added, because once exposed, the dinosaur would have been rapidly lost to the elements.
"Erosion is very quick there," Choiniere said. "The whole specimen could have been turned to powdered bone dust in a few years, easily."
New Dinosaur Had Killer Claw
Stretching about 8 feet (2.5 meters) and weighing 55 pounds (25 kilograms), Linheraptor would have been a fast, agile animal that preyed on small horned dinosaurs related to Triceratops, which also lived the area. (See other prehistoric creatures of the Cretaceous.)
It's unclear how this particular Linheraptor died, but one idea is that it suffocated beneath a sand avalanche.
And God saw that it was good.
You couldn’t arm me with enough bazookas to walk around some parts of the Earth’s history.
I wish I had claws like that!
It’s pretty cool to just see fossilized dino bones sticking out of canyon walls.
8 feet long but only 55 pounds?? And fur??
It looks like a racoon. Rocky Racoonasaurus.
Ping.
no a type of feather. They are birds same with the T-Rex
From Wikipedia:
T-Rex was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event.
Skin and feathers - skin impressions from large tyrannosaurid specimens show mosaic scales
They are still with us, we call them democrats now...:O)
It has been in debate for a long time if they were birds or not. I tend to believe they are based on their legs.
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Thanks houeto.called Linheraptor exquisitusWow, I thought you were exaggerating for effect. ;') |
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Make a great show on TV......The Raptor Whisperer.
They probably would last too long.
....It’s unclear how this particular Linheraptor died.....
There seems to be no evidence of spear points. One wonders if they looked really close.
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