''Linheraptor'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

dromaeosaurid Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

which lived in what is now China in the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

. It was named by Xu Xing and colleagues in 2010, and contains the species ''Linheraptor exquisitus''. This bird-like dinosaur was less than 2 m (6.5 ft) long and was found in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. It is known from a single, nearly complete skeleton.

Discovery

Researchers announced the discovery of the genus after a nearly complete fossilised skeleton was found in 2008 by Jonah N. Choiniere and Michael Pittman in

; a more detailed publication is forthcoming. The specimen was recovered from rocks at

Bayan Mandahu The Bayan Mandahu Formation (also known as Wulansuhai Formation or Wuliangsuhai Formation) is a geological unit of "redbeds" located near the village of Bayan Mandahu in Inner Mongolia, China Asia (Gobi Desert) and dates from the late Cretaceous P ...

that belong to the

Wulansuhai Formation The Bayan Mandahu Formation (also known as Wulansuhai Formation or Wuliangsuhai Formation) is a geological unit of "redbeds" located near the village of Bayan Mandahu in Inner Mongolia, China Asia (Gobi Desert) and dates from the late Cretaceous P ...

. The latter includes lithologies that are very similar to the Mongolian

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...

-aged rocks of the

Djadokhta Formation The Djadochta Formation (sometimes transcribed and also known as Djadokhta, Djadokata, or Dzhadokhtskaya) is a highly fossiliferous geological formation situated in Central Asia, Gobi Desert, dating from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 mill ...

which have yielded the closely related dromaeosaurids ''

Tsaagan ''Tsaagan'' (meaning "white") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Djadokhta Formation of the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Discovery and naming The holotype of ''Tsaagan'' was discovered in 1996 and first identified as a specimen of '' ...

'' and ''Velociraptor''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

specimen of ''Linheraptor'', articulated and uncompressed, is one of the few nearly complete skeletons of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs worldwide. The name of the genus refers to the district of Linhe, Inner Mongolia, China where the specimen was discovered, while the specific name, ''exquisitus'', refers to the well-preserved nature of the holotype ( IVPP V 16923).

Description

''Linheraptor'' was a bird-like

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur. It was a dromaeosaurid which measured approximately in length, and weighed up to approximately . At that size, ''Linheraptor'' would have been a fast and agile predator, perhaps preying on small ceratopsians. Like all dromaeosaurids, it had an elongated skull, a curved neck, an enlarged toe claw on each foot, and a long tail; ''Linheraptor'' was

bipedal Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' 'double' ...

and carnivorous. The large toe claws may have been used for capturing prey.

Taxonomy

Among its sister taxa, ''Linheraptor'' is believed to be most closely related to ''

Tsaagan mangas ''Tsaagan'' (meaning "white") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Djadokhta Formation of the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Discovery and naming The holotype of ''Tsaagan'' was discovered in 1996 and first identified as a specimen of '' ...

''. ''Linheraptor'' and ''Tsaagan'' were intermediate between basal and derived dromaeosaurids. The two share several skull details, among which a large maxillary fenestra — an opening in the

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

, an upper jaw bone — and lack various features of more derived dromaeosaurids such as ''Velociraptor''. Senter (2011) and Turner, Makovicky and Norell (2012) argue that ''Linheraptor exquisitus'' is a junior synonym of ''Tsaagan mangas'', but Xu, Pittman ''et al''. (2015) reject this synonymy by responding to the counterarguments proposed using new and existing details of ''Linheraptors anatomy. A monographic description of ''Linheraptor'' is currently in preparation.

References

External links

Fossil of ''Linheraptor''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q132521 Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Eudromaeosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2010 Taxa named by Mark Norell

Discovery

Description

Taxonomy

See also

References

External links