The article says that they're Dromomeron romeri, a species of basal dinosauromorphs, but I guess the writer dumbed it down to "dinosaur precursor" for the SF Gate readership.
With that line of reasoning, I wonder what humans are on their way to becoming? We're obviously in a transitional stage, on our way to becoming - what?
Logically, posthumans. I don't know what the binomial nomenclature for that would be--I think Eric Lensherr uses Homo superior.
Your posthuman future!