We all know by now thatVelociraptorwas not the scaly 6 - ft beast of the movies , but it would seem that a newly discovered relative might well have been a unnerving hunter , albeit not in the room you might assume . fit in to the research worker whodiscovered the new species , it likely had a incisive sense of smell that would have made the dinosaur “ an restrain predatory animal . ” Looks like hide behind a kitchen counter might not operate this fourth dimension around .
The newly described specimen , a section of the animal ’s skull , was originally assigned as a different coinage calledSauornitholestes slangstoni . These were small carnivoroustheropoddinosaurs that lived about 75 million years ago , towards the end of the sovereignty of the dinosaurs . But whilst compare it to otherS. slangstoniexamples , Steven Jasinski , a doctorial student at theUniversity of Pennsylvania , start out to notice pernicious differences .
These mostly related to to the neighborhood of the brain responsible for smell , called the olfactory bulb . Jasinkski found that this area was surprisingly large in the skull in doubt , entail that the creature had a particularly good sense of sense of smell . He distinguish the new speciesSauornitholestes sullivani , after the paleontologistRobert Sullivanwho originally found the specimen in New Mexico in 1999 .
Since its original discovery and misidentification , the section of skull had been sitting in the collection of theState Museum of Pennsylvania . This reclassification is reported in this month’sNew Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin .
The newfangled dinosaur is the first of its type to have been ascertain in southern North America , and goes to show that there were distinct species living in the different regions . It was not a large fauna , hit just under a cadence ( 3 ft ) in superlative , and was probably feathered like other members of its family such asVelociraptor . It too had the characteristic sickle shaped hook on its metrical unit , and they probably hunt in inner circle .
This would have been utilitarian for such a small carnivore living in an environment satisfy with other giant star of the Cretaceous , such as the duck - billed hadrosaurParasaurolophus , and tusk dinosaur such asPentaceratops .
Despite its belittled sizing , its acute mother wit of odour , diminished nimble sizing and potential social prank in all probability signify it was a highly in effect hunting watch . “ Although it was not large , this was not a dinosaur you would need to mess with , " Jasinski tell .
