Oviraptor gigante

A NEW OVIRAPTOROSAUR (THEROPODA, MANIRAPTORA) FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS (CAMPANIAN) OF UTAH

LINDSAY E. ZANNO and SCOTT D. SAMPSON
Utah Museum of Natural History and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 1390 E. Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT: Recent field expeditions to Upper Cretaceous deposits within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah, have revealed a diverse dinosaurian fauna that includes a previously unknown oviraptorosaur theropod. Represented by a single partial specimen consisting of manal and pedal elements, this new taxon, Hagryphus giganteus, gen. et. sp. nov., is estimated to be 30–40% larger than the coeval oviraptorosaur Chirostenotes. The holotype consists of a nearly complete, articulated left manus, a partial, articulated pedal digit II, and a series of fragmentary pedal phalanges and distal metatarsals. Several autapomorphies are present in the manus, related primarily to proportional differences in metacarpals and phalanges. Previous finds of North American oviraptorosaurs have been restricted to Alberta, Montana, and South Dakota. The discovery of this new specimen from southern Utah greatly expands the known geographic distribution of these theropods, nearly doubling the previously documented range of North American oviraptorosaurs.

DINOSAURIO DE EXTENSO CUELLO

Un equipo de paleontólogos estadounidenses descubrió en China al dinosaurio con el cuello más extenso en promedio que el de cualquier otro animal que pobló la Tierra hace millones de años.

El nuevo dinosaurio, de la familia de los saurópodos y que fue llamado "Erketu ellisoni", poseía un cuello de 7.3 metros de largo.

El animal fue desenterrado en el desierto de Gobi, en el oeste de China, por un equipo de científicos del Museo Estadounidense de Historia Natural de Nueva York.
El cuello del "Erketu Ellisoni" era más corto que el de su pariente diplodocus, pero medía más de la mitad de la extensión del dinosaurio, convirtiéndolo en el saurópodo que proporcionalmente poseía el cuello más extenso.

Cría de Triceratops horridus

Ha sido presentado un cráneode 30 cm de longitud de un bebé de Triceratops horridus, de un año de edad y un tamaño de 90 cm. En la imagen un molde de éste que fué hayado en la formación Hell Creeck de Montana.Mas información en UC Bercley News

Ornitópodo Juvenil

Juvenile ornithopod (Dinosauria: Rhabdodontidae) remains from the Upper Cretaceous (Lower Campanian, Gosau Group) of Muthmannsdorf (Lower Austria)

Geobios, In Press, Available online 6 March 2006 Sven Sachs and Jahn J. Hornung


The fragmentary remains of a juvenile rhabdodontid ornithopod from the Coal-bearing Complex of the Gosau Group (Lower Campanian, Grünbach syncline) at Muthmannsdorf near Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria are revised. The material, probably belonging to a single
individual, includes a right dentary (lectotype of Iguanodon suessi Bunzel, 1871, designated herein), teeth, a fragmentary parietal, fragments of scapula, ?radius, femur, tibia, two vertebrae (lost) and a manual ungual.

The lectotype dentary does not provide clear autapomorphies or sufficient diagnostic features to determine its position within the Rhabdodontidae at generic level. By this "Iguanodon suessi" Bunzel, 1871 and the genus "Mochlodon" Seeley, 1881, to which it was latter referred as type species, cannot be characterized sufficiently by differential diagnosis and these are best considered nomina dubia.
Based upon combined character comparisons (mainly postcranial features) the Muthmannsdorf ornithopod is referred herein to Zalmoxes Weishampel, Jianu, Csiki and Norman, 2003, a genus so far known from the late Maastrichtian of Romania. It probably but not evidently represents a yet unnamed species, most closely related to Zalmoxes shpiperorum Weishampel, Jianu, Csiki and Norman, 2003. At the present state of knowledge the Austrian material is not further diagnostic at the species level and kept in open nomenclature as Zalmoxes sp.