New Mostly Complete Troodontid

[ZoPteryx]

Almas ukhaa:  It's been a good year for new troodontid taxa, now up to 6!  The newest is a Late Cretaceous troodontid from the Djadokhta Formation known from a nearly complete skull and partial skeleton.  Despite being classified among derived troodontids, Almas is rather small in size and has a fairly short snout, features usually associated with more primitive forms from the Early Cretaceous of China.

Paper should be open access soon:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/3889.1

[Ravonium]

Good find as usual.


If I recall correctly, this is the 3rd new theropod described from this formation this year (and it was only described about one and a half weeks after the 2nd one). Another additional fact is that all 3 of them have been maniraptoriforme theropods.

[ZoPteryx]

Good find as usual.


If I recall correctly, this is the 3rd new theropod described from this formation this year (and it was only described about one and a half weeks after the 2nd one). Another additional fact is that all 3 of them have been maniraptoriforme theropods.

Indeed.  It's really quite amazing how many theropods inhabited Late Cretaceous Mongolia.  I suspect the abundance of edge habitats, which often host large numbers of reptile and bird species today, is the main reason for their diversity.

[ZoPteryx]

The paper is now open access:

http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6818

[UtahraptorFan]

I found out about this last night when checking for today's Dino Checker daily dinosaur (Rubeosaurus). I saw that they had one more type added than before so I checked it out.

Everything Dinosaur has an article with a picture.

[Patrx]

Nice article, but that reconstruction does not suit me. How about this one by Tomozaurus?


It really does seem a lot like the earlier Chinese troodontids.

[Faelrin]

Okay that reconstruction on everything dinosaur is pretty poorly done considering this is for a late 2017 discovery. It is really shrinkwrapped, missing its primary feathers (and does not seem to have the right type of tail feathers), and the head just looks off. The other one posted here seems much better.

Anyways I hope this discovery sheds more light on these animals. The skull definitely seems bird like at the least.

[UtahraptorFan]

After comparing the 2 restorations, I agree that Tomozaurus' version is better. I also agree that this has been quite the year (I'd consider using the word, "eventful") for Troodontidae.