Sinornithosaurus millenii
By Fraizer on @saint-nevermore
Name: Sinornithosaurus millenii
Name Meaning: Chinese Bird Lizard
First Described: 1999
Described By: Xu, Wang, & Wu
Classification: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Dromaeosauroidea, Dromaeosauridae, Microraptoria
Sinornithosaurus was a fairly important dinosaur discovery, being the fifth non-avian feathered dinosaur discovered. It was found in the Jianshangou beds of the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China. It lived about 124.5 million years ago in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous and is known from a few specimens. It was very well preserved with clear evidence of feathers, and also indications of different colorations in different body areas on those feathers. It was an early dromaeosaur, but had many similar features to avian dinosaurs.
By Calum O’Halloran at @ridiculouslyphotogenicsinosaurus
This indicates that the traits that we typically think of as bird like evolved early on in the group that contains dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and birds; directly refuting a lot of the arguments made by BANDits. Despite thoughts that it may have been venomous due to grooves in its teeth, these claims have been refuted significantly in later studies. It would have been a lively animal, hunting the forest floor looking for things such as small mammals, and living a mainly arboreal lifestyle. It was about 120 centimeters long and would only have come up to the knee on a 1.8 meter high person.
Sources:
http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/s/sinornithosaurus.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinornithosaurus
Shout out goes to blue-sunshine93!
