New dinosaur fossil discovered in China: Meat-eating dinosaur from late Jurassic was less than a yea

Ah, the Jurassic...

No, not Jurassic Park, the REAL Jurassic, when dinosaurs stomped around, chomped on mammals, and sneered at the earliest birds. Pangaea (not the rock band) was breaking up, and a whole lot of shaking was going on.

Most of the rocks with Jurassic material have been eroded away (or buried under younger rocks) but one of the few places they can still be found is China. These largely unexplored fossil beds are now a very active research area, producing new and exciting finds like this newly announced juvenile therapod (meat eater) that dates from the Jurassic. When it died (about 160 million years ago), it was around a year old, was about 3 feet long, and weighed about 3 lbs.

No, that's not a typo by anyone. Therapods (coelurosaurs, specifically) are relatives of the birds and are built very lightly -- this little darling was about the length and weight of a macaw (those big red (or blue) parrots from the Amazon.)

The skull they show is beautifully preserved, showing the characteristic facial structure and teeth of a therapod (with a US quarter in the photo to show scale (good paleontological practice!)).

Like most wild animals, dinosaurs grew very quickly during their first year of life... the adult would possibly be 9 feet long.

Some additional information here (here)

reply to post by Byrd



Interesting link. Fantastically well written opening.

Wish I had more to add than that.

I kinda wonder how they know a dinosaurs age. I mean we don't even have a live dinosaur to compare it to. Maybe they found a birthday cake at the site of a dinosaur and counted the candles It seems to me that it would only be speculation since these animals lived so long ago and we don't have any direct relatives around that are anywhere near the same. They say T-Rexs were old at 35. I can't in my mind understand what kind of evidence they have to derive that. We have no first hand knowledge of these animals. I suppose speculating is all right as long as enough of the paleontologists agree to adopt it. Then it becomes reality.

It's not like we guess by just the size of animal. Can tell a lot from the bone structure and etc.

Awesome find, Byrd! Wish you could have put a few pix in of the lil cutie.

Originally posted by rickymouse
I kinda wonder how they know a dinosaurs age. I mean we don't even have a live dinosaur to compare it to. Maybe they found a birthday cake at the site of a dinosaur and counted the candles

But we do have a science called Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy -- something I took at the university-- which focuses on the similarities in various species. CompVertAnat is one of the key disciplines that paleontologists use when determining what a dinosaur looks like and how old it was.

There are many clues in the bones (I've seen them)... in this case, the age is based on size relative to a close species, and what's called the calcification of the ephiphyses. They know it's a new species (I've asked my paleontologists about this) because of the number of teeth and position of fossa (holes for nerves and blood vessles) in the skull and on other bones.

Bone growth rings also show how old an animal was (approximately.)

It seems to me that it would only be speculation since these animals lived so long ago and we don't have any direct relatives around that are anywhere near the same. They say T-Rexs were old at 35. I can't in my mind understand what kind of evidence they have to derive that.

Bone growth rings and arthritic calcifications on the bones.

Originally posted by Byrd
Ah, the Jurassic...

No, not Jurassic Park, the REAL Jurassic, when dinosaurs stomped around, chomped on mammals, and sneered at the earliest birds. Pangaea (not the rock band) was breaking up, and a whole lot of shaking was going on.

Most of the rocks with Jurassic material have been eroded away (or buried under younger rocks) but one of the few places they can still be found is China. These largely unexplored fossil beds are now a very active research area, producing new and exciting finds like this newly announced juvenile therapod (meat eater) that dates from the Jurassic. When it died (about 160 million years ago), it was around a year old, was about 3 feet long, and weighed about 3 lbs.

No, that's not a typo by anyone. Therapods (coelurosaurs, specifically) are relatives of the birds and are built very lightly -- this little darling was about the length and weight of a macaw (those big red (or blue) parrots from the Amazon.)

The skull they show is beautifully preserved, showing the characteristic facial structure and teeth of a therapod (with a US quarter in the photo to show scale (good paleontological practice!)).

Like most wild animals, dinosaurs grew very quickly during their first year of life... the adult would possibly be 9 feet long.

Some additional information here (here)

I understand that things grew larger in those days, due to atmospheric conditions. Could have been a giant parrot of sorts?

Wish i could see more detail. The background is camouflaged. Very interesting, nonetheless.