Xixianykus

 Xixianykus is a genus of alvarezsauroidtheropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceousperiod of China.[1]

Xixianykus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 83 Ma 
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
↓
Scientific classificationedit
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Clade:Dinosauria
Clade:Saurischia
Clade:Theropoda
Family:†Alvarezsauridae
Genus:†Xixianykus
Xu et al, 2010
Species:
†X. zhangi
Binomial name
†Xixianykus zhangi
Xu et al., 2010

Discovery and namingEdit

The fossil, holotype XMDFEC V0011, was found in the Majiacun Formation in Henan Province, China. The fossil consists of a partial skeleton, without the skull. Parts of the hind legs, pelvis and spine has also been recovered. Xixiankykus is among the oldest of the derived alvarezsauroids, the parvicursorines, dated to the Santonian–Coniacian, as opposed to other parvicursorines, which are either Campanianor Maastrichtian.[2]

The type species is Xixianykus zhangidescribed in 2010 by Xu Xing. The genus name refers to Xixia County and to the Greek word for claw ("onyx"). The latter is a common element used in names for Alvarezsaurids. The species name is in honor of Zhang Xinglao.

DescriptionEdit

Size comparison

Xixianykus was a small animal, about 50 centimetres (20 in) long and 20 centimetres (7.9 in) high. It is one of the smallest-known dinosaurs (not counting avians). It appears to have many adaptations towards a cursorial(running) lifestyle. It was about 50 centimetres long but had 20-centimetre-long (7.9 in) legs and a short femur combined with a long tibia and metatarsus, which are good indicators of it being a fast runner.[2] It was probably covered in feathers.


This article uses material from the Wikipedia article
 Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the 
Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.