Talos sampsoni

 ( Troodontidae ) 

Talos is an extinct genus of Troodontidae Theropoda dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period (late Campanian, about 76 million years ago) in the geographic area that is now Utah, United States. It is known from a single species, Talos sampsoni.

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Discovery Talos is known only from the holotype specimen UMNH VP 19479, a partial skeleton of a subadult individual including the hindlimbs, pelvis, vertebral fragments, chevrons and the left ulna. It was discovered and collected in 2008 by M. J. Knell during the Kaiparowits Basin Project, initiated by the University of Utah in 2000, from the Kaiparowits Formation within the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. It was first named by Lindsay Zanno, David J. Varricchio, Patrick M. O'Connor, Alan L. Titus, and Michael J. Knell in 2011 and the type species is Talos sampsoni. The generic name comes from Talos, a giant bronze automaton in Greek mythology and is intended to be a pun on the English word talon. The specific name honors television paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson for researching and collecting fossils during the Kaiparowits Basin Project.

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Description

Talos is a troodontid, a group of small, bird-like, Gracility . All troodontids have many unique features of the skull, such as closely spaced teeth in the lower jaw, and large numbers of teeth. Troodontids have sickle-claws and raptorial hands, and some of the highest non-Bird encephalization quotients, meaning they were behaviourally advanced and had keen senses. Talos is approximately in length, and its weight has been estimated at thirty-eight kilograms. Talos had a sickle claw. That of the specimen was damaged during life, possibly in an attack on prey.

In 2011 Talos was assigned to the Troodontidae. A cladistic analysis indicated it formed a clade of derived troodontids together with Byronosaurus, Saurornithoides, Zanabazar and Troodon.

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Paleoecology

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Habitat

The only known specimen of Talos was recovered at the Kaiparowits Formation, in southern Utah. Argon-argon radiometric dating indicates that the Kaiparowits Formation was deposited between 76.1 and 74.0 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period.Roberts EM, Deino AL, Chan MA (2005) 40Ar/39Ar age of the Kaiparowits Formation, southern Utah, and correlation of contemporaneous Campanian strata and vertebrate faunas along the margin of the Western Interior Basin. Cretaceous Res 26: 307–318.Eaton, J.G., 2002. Multituberculate mammals from the Wahweap (Campanian, Aquilan) and Kaiparowits (Campanian, Judithian) formations, within and near Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. Miscellaneous Publication 02-4, UtahGeological Survey, 66 pp. During the Late Cretaceous period, the site of the Kaiparowits Formation was located near the western shore of the Western Interior Seaway, a large inland sea that split North America into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. The plateau where dinosaurs lived was an ancient floodplain dominated by large channels and abundant wetland peat swamps, ponds and lakes, and was bordered by highlands. The climate was wet and humid, and supported an abundant and diverse range of organisms.Titus, Alan L. and Mark A. Loewen (editors). At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah. 2013. Indiana University Press. Hardbound: 634 pp. This formation contains one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life in the world.

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Paleofauna

Talos shared its paleoenvironment with such as dromaeosauridae, ornithomimids like Ornithomimus, tyrannosaurids like Teratophoneus, ankylosauria such as Akainacephalus, the hadrosaurid Parasaurolophus and Gryposaurus, the ceratopsians Utahceratops, Nasutoceratops titusi and Kosmoceratops and the Hagryphus. Paleofauna present in the Kaiparowits Formation included chondrichthyes (sharks and rays), , , , and . A variety of early were present including , , and .

Jeffrey G. Eaton (1999). 9781557916341, Utah Geological Survey. ISBN 9781557916341

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See also

• Timeline of troodontid research

Categories: Troodontidae, Dinosaur Species, Campanian Dinosaurs, Kaiparowits Formation, Taxa Named By Lindsay Zanno, Fossil Taxa Described In 2011, Dinosaurs Of The United States

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