First known monodactyl dinosaur adding knowledge to the evolution and biogeography of alvarezsauroids
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 08:31
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The alvarezsauroid theropod Linhenykus monodactylus from the Upper Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China is the first known monodactyl non−avian dinosaur, providing important information on the complex patterns of manual evolution seen in alvarezsauroids. In a paper published in the journal of Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58 (1), Dr. XU Xing, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team provide a detailed description of the osteology of this taxon. Linhenykus shows a number of features that are transitional between parvicursorine and non−parvicursorine alvarezsauroids, but detailed comparisons also reveal that some characters had a more complex distribution.