[USA], July 14 (ANI): A team of researchers has discovered a new specimen of a microraptor -- volant
dromaeosaurid Microraptor zhaoianus -- with the remains of a nearly complete lizard preserved in its stomach.
These characters are comparable quantitatively and qualitatively with those described in
dromaeosaurid teeth.
Named in 2013 by ROM palaeontologist David Evans, Acheroraptor is the youngest known
dromaeosaurid dinosaur; it lived alongside T.
, a house cat-sized
dromaeosaurid dinosaur related to the
A basal
dromaeosaurid and size evolution preceding avian flight.
Overall, researchers have found four specimens, all far south of where any indisputable
dromaeosaurid remains have ever been discovered.
These vertebrate fossil assemblages are mainly dominated by titanosaurian sauropods, rhabdodontid ornithopods, nodosaurid ankylosaurs and
dromaeosaurid theropods among dinosaurs, alligatoroid crocodyliforms, bothremydid and solemydid turtles, and zhelestid mammals.
"We see fully formed wings in exquisitely preserved
dromaeosaurid fossils, and from biomechanical studies we can show that they were also able to perform a rudimentary flapping stroke.
At the time, they called it a missing link between birds and dinosaurs because it manifested the long bony tail of
dromaeosaurid dinosaurs and the specialized shoulders and chest of birds.
The 1.8m-long predator was a
dromaeosaurid - a family of theropod dinosaurs from which modern birds descended.
The
dromaeosaurid Achillobator from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia (Hicks et al., 1999) may have reached a body mass of approximately 350 kilograms (Perle et al., 1999; Turner et al., 2007), but other dromaeosaurs, as well as troodontids, alvarezsaurids, and bona fide avians, were small-bodied animals that rarely reached sizes larger than an average man.