Shuvuuia
| Shuvuuia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shuvuuia , graphic reconstruction |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (early to middle Campanium ) | ||||||||||||
| 83.6 to 76.4 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Shuvuuia | ||||||||||||
| Chiappe , Norell & Clark , 1998 | ||||||||||||
Shuvuuia (from Mongolian "Shuvuu" - bird) is a genus of the Alvarezsauridae , a group of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs that belong to the theropods . The only one of this kind of feathered dinosaurs attributed type is shuvuuia deserti . She lived at the time of the Upper Cretaceous (early to middle Campanium ) in what is now Mongolia .
Fossils of shuvuuia was in two places in the desert Gobi found. Velociraptor and Protoceratops were found in the same rock layers .
features
Shuvuuia was about 60 centimeters long, making it one of the smallest known dinosaurs. His back legs were slender and make him a good runner. The forelegs were short, strong, and ended in a single massive claw, similar to that of the closely related genus Mononykus . The other two fingers were severely reduced. May have been shuvuuia a specialized insectivore that with its strong front claws termite nests opened, similar to pangolins do today.
Bird likeness
When examining the sediment surrounding the fossil , fibrous structures were found that indicate fletching of the animal. Biochemical studies have shown that these structures are decomposition products of beta-keratin , while traces of alpha-keratin are absent. In reptilian scales both alpha-keratin occur and beta-keratin in feathers , however, is only beta keratin.
Shuvuuia was able to move his upper jaw relative to the back of the skull - a form of cranial kinesis that is otherwise only found in higher birds such as the Hesperornithiformes and the Neornithes within the Theropoda , but not, for example, in Archeopteryx . This is a further indication of the close relationship between Shuvuuia and Alvarezsauridae and birds in general.
literature
- Luis M. Chiappe , Mark A. Norell , James M. Clark : The skull of a relative of the stem-group bird Mononykus. In: Nature . Vol. 392, No. 6673, 1998, pp. 275-278, doi : 10.1038 / 32642 .
- Hazel Richardson: Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Appearance, characteristics, biology, distribution. BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-405-16765-5 .
- Mary H. Schweitzer, John A. Watt, Recep Avci, Loren Knapp, Luis Chiappe, Mark Norell, Mark Marshall: Beta-keratin Specific Immunological Reactivity in Feather-Like Structures of the Cretaceous Alvarezsaurid, Shuvuuia deserti. In: Journal of Experimental Zoology. Vol. 285, No. 2, 1999, ISSN 0022-104X , pp. 146-157, doi : 10.1002 / (SICI) 1097-010X (19990815) 285: 2 <146 :: AID-JEZ7> 3.0.CO; 2 -A .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 127, online .