Dzharaonyx

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Dzharaonyx
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Turonian
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Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: Alvarezsauridae
Subfamily: Parvicursorinae
Genus: Dzharaonyx
Averianov & Sues, 2022
Species:
D. eski
Binomial name
Dzharaonyx eski
Averianov & Sues, 2022

Dzharaonyx (meaning "Dzharakuduk claw", named after the type locality) is a genus of alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The type species is Dzharaonyx eski; eski being an Uzbek word for "old". [1]

Contents

Description

Dzharaonyx is known from a series of disassociated but well-preserved postcranial material. The form of the humerus is intermediate between that of Patagonykus and Mononykus . [1]

Classification

Phylogenetic analysis places Dzharaonyx in a polytomy including other Asian members of Parvicursorinae. This makes it the oldest parvicursorine known to date. [1]

Alvarezsauridae

Paleoenvironment

Dzharaonyx lived in the Bissekty Formation, which has been intensively studied in recent years. It represents a brackish environment. [3] It coexisted with larger theropods including the dromaeosaurid Itemirus , the tyrannosauroid Timurlengia , and the troodontid Urbacodon . The hadrosaur Levnesovia , ankylosaurs, and the sauropod Dzharatitanis represented the herbivores in this ecosystem.

Related Research Articles

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Parvicursor is a genus of tiny maniraptoran dinosaur with long slender legs for fast running.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvarezsauridae</span> Family of extinct long-legged dinosaurs

Alvarezsauridae is a family of small, long-legged dinosaurs. Although originally thought to represent the earliest known flightless birds, they are now thought to be an early diverging branch of maniraptoran theropods. Alvarezsaurids were highly specialized. They had tiny but stout forelimbs, with compact, bird-like hands. Their skeletons suggest that they had massive breast and arm muscles, possibly adapted for digging or tearing. They had long, tube-shaped snouts filled with tiny teeth. They have been interpreted as myrmecophagous, adapted to prey on colonial insects such as termites, with the short arms acting as effective digging instruments to break into nests.

Asiamericana is a dubious genus of coelurosaur known only from isolated teeth found in the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekhistan. It was named to recognize the occurrence of similar fossil teeth in Central Asia and North America. These regions once formed a connected land mass, during the Cretaceous period.

<i>Patagonykus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Patagonykus is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina. This alvarezsauroid was discovered in exposures of the Portezuelo Formation (Turonian-Coniacian) of the Rio Neuquén Subgroup in the Neuquén Basin, Neuquen Province of Patagonia, Argentina. The holotype consists of an incomplete but well-preserved skeleton, lacking a skull, but including many vertebrae, the coracoids, a partial forelimb, pelvic girdle, and hindlimbs. Patagonykus has been classed with the Alvarezsauridae, a family which includes such taxa as the Mongolian Mononykus and the Argentinian Alvarezsaurus. In 2010 Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at 1 meter and its weight at 3.5 kg.

<i>Itemirus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Itemirus is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous period of Uzbekistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barun Goyot Formation</span>

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<i>Ceratonykus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Ceratonykus is a monospecific genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur from Mongolia that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Barun Goyot Formation. The type and only species, Ceratonykus oculatus, is known from a fragmentary skeleton, including an incomplete skull, of an adult individual. It was named and described in 2009 by Vladimir Alifanov and Rinchen Barsbold. Its describers questioned the traditional placement of alvarezsaurs in Theropoda, instead suggesting they were ornithischians, but this has not been accepted since. Ceratonykus has an estimated length of 75 centimetres and weight of 760 grams. It has been considered as a possible junior synonym of Parvicursor.

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<i>Bonapartenykus</i> A large alvarezsauroid dinosaur

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<i>Dzharatitanis</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Dzharatitanis is a genus of sauropod from the Bissekty Formation in Uzbekistan, dating to the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous. The genus contains a single species, Dzharatitanis kingi, named after geologist Christopher King, who contributed to the Cretaceous geology of Asia. It is currently one of two known sauropods from the Bissekty Formation, alongside an indeterminate titanosaur. In its original publication it was considered to be a member of Rebbachisauridae, but later papers considered it to be a titanosaur.

<i>Kansaignathus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

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Natovenator is a genus of halszkaraptorine dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Barun Goyot Formation of Mongolia. The genus is known from a single species, N. polydontus. Natovenator is crucial to the understanding of halszkaraptorines due to it providing more support for the semi-aquatic lifestyle that has been proposed for this clade. This discovery is important as the semi-aquatic lifestyles of halszkaraptorines was contested in early 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Averianov AO, Sues HD (2022). "New material and diagnosis of a new taxon of alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 41 (5): e2036174. doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.2036174. S2CID   247391327.
  2. Averianov AO, Lopatin AV (2022). "A new alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Gobi Desert, Mongolia". Cretaceous Research. 134: 105168. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105168. S2CID   247000540.
  3. Redman, C.M., and L.R. Leighton. 2009. Multivariate faunal analysis of the Turonian Bissekty Formation: Variation in the degree of marine influence in temporally and spatially averaged fossil assemblages. PALAIOS 24(1). 18–26. Accessed 2019-03-22.