Archovember 2025 Day 17
Dinosaur Tianyuraptor ostromi, of Late Cretaceous, China!
Tianyuraptor ostromi is part of the Microraptoria clade, a clade of dromaeosaurs known for long feathers on both their legs and arms giving them “four wings”. However, Tianyuraptor had unusually short arms for a microraptorian, paired with unusually long lower hindlimbs. It was also larger than all other known microraptorines. Tianyuraptor was likely not doing any gliding, but was instead adapted as a ground-based pursuit predator.
Found in the Yixian Formation of Late Cretaceous China, Tianyuraptor ostromi would have lived alongside a plethora of other theropods, including other microraptorians like Sinornithosaurus and Zhongjianosaurus, compsognathids like Sinosauropteryx, a variety of avialans like Zhongornis, Yixianosaurus, Shanweiniao, Sapeornis, Longicrusavis, Hongshanornis, Iteravis, Dalingheornis, Archaeorhynchus, and Confuciusornis, oviraptorosaurs like Similicaudipteryx, therizinosaurs like Beipiaosaurus, and tyrannosauroids like Dilong. Tianyuraptor could have also met ankylosaurs like Liaoningosaurus, ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis, and hadrosaurs like Jinzhousaurus. Pterosaurs also lived here, including ctenochasmatids like Cathayopterus and Elanodactylus, istiodactylids like Luchibang, and other pterodactyloids like Ningchengopterus.
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