A field guide to mesozoic birds and other winged dinosaurs
Suarezes’ Twin Seizer Geminiraptor suarezorum Time: 126 Ma ago Location: Utah, USA Habitat: Yellow Cat Member, Cedar Mountain Formation. Open, marshy mud flats. Size: WS unknown; BL ~1.3m (4.4ft); TL unknown Features: Mid-sized troodontids known from a single snout bone (maxilla). High, rounded snout characterized internally by extensive air-filled cavities and prominent, elongated openings. Tooth sockets square & separated by small walls of bone. Biology: The broad snout & odd tooth arrangement may indicate an unusual method of feeding among deinonychosaurians. Young’s Chinese Saurornithoid Sinornithoides youngi Time: 125 Ma ago Location: Inner Mongolia, China Habitat: Ejinhoro Formation Size: WS >50cm (1.6ft); BL 1.3m (4.4ft); TL unknown Features: Head small w/ somewhat pointed snout. Neck relatively long. Body long with very small wings & small wing claws. Legs very long with relatively small talons. Tail relatively short. Biology: The extremely long legs & very small wings indicate an exclusively terrestrial habitat. Likely fast runners, the long legs and slender, pointed snout may suggest that these were wading, aquatic foragers. Byron Jaffe’s Lizard Byronosaurus jaffei Time: 75 Ma ago Location: Omnogovi, Mongolia Habitat: Ukhaa Tolgod, Djadochta Formation. Dune fields and arid scrubland with nearby waterways. Nesting grounds for a wide variety of desert birds. Size: WS unknown; BL ~1.4m (4.6ft); TL unknown Features: Snout long & narrow. Nestlings very small & dissimilar in appearance, having triangular, pointed heads. Nested nearby to caenagnathiformes (Citipati osmolskae) and enantiornitheans (Gobipteryx minuta) among sand dune fields. Biology: Possibly hunted small vertebrates such as lizards. Asymmetrical ear openings similar to owls allowed them to pinpoint small prey hidden in brush or buried in sand. 102
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