#limusaurus inextricabilis

[themeeplord]

A couple of loud guys.

2026 dinosaur prompt list

[netmassimo]

An article published in the journal "Current Biology" describes a research on a dinosaur with characteristics similar to birds called Limusaurus inextricabilis. A team of researchers studied 19 specimens ranging from babies to adults discovered in today's Xinjiang province in China to analyze how they developed teeth and then lost them over time.

[netmassimo]

Un articolo pubblicato sulla rivista "Current Biology" descrive una ricerca su un dinosauro con caratteristiche simili agli uccelli chiamato Limusaurus inextricabilis. Un team di ricercatori ha studiato 19 esemplari che andavano da piccoli appena nati ad adulti scoperti nell'odierna provincia di Xinjiang in Cina per analizzare come essi sviluppassero una dentatura che perdevano nel corso del tempo.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Limusaurus inextricabilis

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

Name: Limusaurus inextricabilis 

Name Meaning: Impossible to extricate mud lizard 

First Described: 2009

Described By: Xu et al 

Classification: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda, Averostra, Ceratosauria 

Limusaurus was a herbivorous theropod dinosaur - making it quite the rarity for the Jurassic period. It lived around 160 million years ago, in the Oxfordian stage of the late Jurassic Period. It was found in the Shishugou Formation in the Junggar Basin of China. This dinosaur is fascinating not only for being a herbivorous theropod in the Jurassic Period, but also for revealing the potential method in which wing structure evolved in birds. It had a complete beak, without teeth, and a long neck and very short forelimbs. It was very similar to the later ornithomimids. Due to it having four digits on its hands, it was still a basal ceratosaur (rather than a later theropod.) However, it seems that it actually lost the first digit on the hand, rather than the fifth - this would mean that the later three fingered theropods actually lost their first and fifth digits, rather than their fifth and fourth digits as previously believed. This puts dinosaurs one step closer to birds, as birds in development in the egg have their first and fifth digits reduced, and not their fourth and fifth. This adds more data to the large body of evidence showing that birds probably evolved from a group of theropod dinosaurs, and helps us understand that long-term evolutionary changes that lead to birds developing wings. 

Sources: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limusaurus

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/l/limusaurus.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090617/full/news.2009.577.html

Shout out goes to archluza!