New species clarifies bird-din...( istinguished by a puzzling combination ...)

istinguished by a puzzling combination of features such as having large air-filled spaces surrounding the braincase, small teeth with unusually large serrations, and a large sickle claw of the foot. These various can occur in different types of theropods, so troodontids have been hard to place on the evolutionary tree. In the past, they have been classified as close relatives of therizinosaurs, ornithomimods and dromaeosaurs.

Being a primitive troodontid, Sinovenator shows some features more similar to dromaeosaurs than to advanced troodontids. Dromaeosaurs, which include Velociraptor, and troodontids are related to birds.

The Sinovenator changii fossil is preserved three-dimensionally because it was found in rocks deposited by a river. While this provides more data on the animals three-dimensional structure, it explains why Sinovenators feathers were not preserved. The feathered dinosaurs recently discovered in the same part of China were found in rocks at the bottoms of lakes that were derived from lake sediment.

Sinovenator changii is named after Dr. Meeman Chang, a leading Chinese paleontologist who spent more than a year time studying fossil fishes at The Field Museum on different occasions, most recently in 1998.

As head of the Beijings Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology for many years, Dr. Chang has helped raise the standards for paleontological inquiry in China, says Lance Grande, PhD, curator of fossil fishes at The Field Museum. She is dedicated to improving the quality and productivity of Beijings natural science institutions through training students, publishing, and improving collection and research facilities in China. She has also played an important role in making it easier for foreign paleontologists to work in China, thereby broadening the scope and importance of paleontological sciences there.

Dr. Makovicky plans to conduct collaborative fieldwork in China to look for more fossils.
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Contact: Greg Borzo
312-665-7100
Field Museum
13-Feb-2002

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