#thedinos

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Seriously can’t wait to be back in one of my favorite places this weekend! #TheDinos go to #Nola Repost from @visitneworleans @andrewjorgie #followyournola (at New Orleans, Louisiana)

[hustleandfl0]

It’s looking like #Christmas in the #TheDinos household! (at Central Harlem)

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THEMUSEUM Family Experience: New Dinosaur Discovery, II

This is part of an ongoing series for the Dinosaurs | The Edge of Extinction exhibition. Previously: Introducing Dinosaurs, Prehistoric Timeline, Discovering Fossils, Dinosaur Bones, New Dinosaur Discovery and Life in the Cretaceous Period.

Anyone who has seen Jurassic Park is familiar with Velociraptors. While we’ll probably never know if they could in fact open doors, we do know that they were fierce predators that most likely hunted in packs. They are theropod dinosaurs, and part of the Dromaeosauridae family. (Dromaeosauridae loosely translates to “running lizards.”) This family of dinosaurs includes many different species of small, feathered, theropod carnivores – namely raptors – that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period.

The newest member of the Dromaeosauridae family was officially announced last month. Its name is Saurornitholestes sullivani; it was named after Robert Sullivan, the paleontologist that discovered it. This new species of raptor is believed to be a much more ferocious cousin of Velociraptor.

S. sullivani was identified as a previously unknown species after paleontologist Steven Jasinski thoroughly examined a fossilized skull. He was going through a cataloge of raptor fossils when he noticed a small anatomical difference between two skulls. Jasinski’s discovery was not intentional; he was not in the field looking for dinosaurs, rather, he stumbled upon a new on by chance.

The skull in question was previously labeled and believed to have belonged to another species of raptor, Saurornitholestes langstoni. S. langstoni was oringially discovered in 1978 in Alberta.

S. sullivani, however, was originally discovered in 1999 and misclassified. Its fossilized remains were found in New Mexico, making it is the southernmost raptor species to be found in North America. This new discovery shows that different species of raptors evolved from a similar ancestor, and lived in different environments.

Much like Velociraptor, S. sullivani is believed to have hunted in packs. It had an acute sense of smell, which is why it has been classified as a separate species from S. langstoni. When Jasinski was analyzing the fossilized skulls, he noticed that one had a larger olfactory bulb. Its keen sense of smell would have helped it track down prey.

This small difference also shows how dinosaurs evolved and adapted to their surroundings. Having a better sense of smell may have helped it hunt and survive, since it lived in a different environment than its northern cousins.

S. sullivani, which translates to “lizard bird thief,” stood roughly three feet tall, and six feet wide. It was a small albeit dangerous predator.

And, like all of the dinosaurs currently on display in Dinosaurs | The Edge of Extinction, S. sullivani was alive during the Late Cretaceous Period.

- See more at: http://themuseum.ca/blog/themuseum-family-experience-new-dinosaur-discovery-ii#sthash.rjysidsG.dpuf

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