Linheraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur which lived in what is now China in the Late Cretaceous. It was named by Xu Xing and colleagues in 2010, and contains the species Linheraptor exquisitus.
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
Inner Mongolia; a more detailed publication is forthcoming.
The specimen was recovered from rocks at
Bayan Mandahu that belong to the Wulansuhai Formation. The latter includes lithologies that are very similar to the Mongolian
Campanian-aged rocks of the Djadokhta Formation which have yielded the closely related dromaeosaurids
Tsaagan and
Velociraptor.
The
holotype 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 District, 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 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
.
Like all dromaeosaurids, it had an elongated skull, a curved neck, an enlarged toe claw on each foot, and a long tail;
Linheraptor was
bipedalism and
carnivore. 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.
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, an upper jaw bone — and lack various features of more
Synapomorphy 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
Linheraptor's anatomy.
A monographic description of
Linheraptor is currently in preparation.
See also
-
Timeline of dromaeosaurid research
External links
