Nedcolbertia

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Nedcolbertia
Temporal range: Valanginian, 139–134  Ma
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Justinhofmanni.jpg
Six year-old Justin Hofmann holding the hindlimb of his namesake dinosaur, Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Ornithomimosauria
Genus: Nedcolbertia
Kirkland et al., 1998
Type species
Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni
Kirkland et al., 1998

Nedcolbertia is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of North America.

Contents

Discovery and naming

Three skeletons of a theropod were discovered in 1993 by Christopher Whittle near Cisco in the basal Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, dating to the Valanginian. These were subsequently studied and reported in 1995 by Kirkland, Britt, Madsen and Burge. [1] Though in 1996 it had been announced that the taxon would be named "Nedcolbertia whittlei", in 1998 it was actually described and named by Kirkland, Whittle, Britt, Madsen and Burge as the type species Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni. The generic name honours the American palaeontologist Edwin Harris Colbert, known as "Ned" to his friends. The specific name honoured Justin Hofmann, a six-year-old school boy from Newton, New Jersey, a participant of a contest for children by Discover Card, the winner having a dinosaur named after him. [2]

Description

Drawing of a Nedcolbertia Nedclobertia.jpg
Drawing of a Nedcolbertia

The holotype, CEUM 5071, is one of the specimens, a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It belonged to a juvenile individual. The paratypes are the other two specimens: CEUM 5072 and CEUM 5073, both fragmentary skeletons again lacking the skull. They represent subadult individuals. All three specimens were disarticulated and heavily eroded, having been exposed at the surface before discovery. They are part of the collection of the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum. [2]

The holotype of Nedcolbertia had a length of about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in). The paratypes, though not yet full-grown, were about 3 metres (9.8 ft). Due to the condition of the remains, information on the species is limited. The vertebrae were not heavily pneumatised. The thumb claw was much larger than the second claw of the hand. The pubic bone carried a large "foot" with a very small or absent anterior process but a large posterior process. The thigh bone had a lesser trochanter that was clearly lower than the greater trochanter; the fourth trochanter was well-developed. The foot was not arctometatarsal. An enlarged second foot claw was lacking. [2]

The describers assigned Nedcolbertia with certainty to the Tetanurae and provisionally to the Coelurosauria. [2] A 2016 overview of ornithomimosaur material from the Arundel Formation of Maryland found Nedcolbertia to be an ornithomimosaur based on comparisons with the Arundel ornithomimosaur remains, Harpymimus , and Nqwebasaurus . [3] In 2024, Cau suggested that Nedcolbertia possibly belongs to Allosauroidea, but included this taxon within Megalosauroidea in his phylogenetic analysis instead. [4]

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References

  1. J. I. Kirkland, C. H. Whittle, B. B. Britt, S. Madsen and D. Burge. A Small Theropod from the Basal Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of Eastern Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15(3), 39A (1995).
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kirkland, J.I.; Britt, B.B.; Whittle, C.H.; Madsen, S.K.; Burge, D.L. (1998). "A small coelurosaurian theropod from the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of eastern Utah". New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. 14: 239–248.
  3. Brownstein, C.D. (2017). "Redescription of Arundel Clay ornithomimosaur material and a reinterpretation of Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni as an "Ostrich Dinosaur": biogeographic implications". PeerJ. 5: e3110. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3110 . PMC   5345386 . PMID   28286718.
  4. Cau, Andrea (2024). "A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution". Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana. 63 (1): 1–19. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2024.08 (inactive 2024-11-20). ISSN   0375-7633.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)

Further reading