Pint-sized meat-eating dinosaur

[Will E Worm]

Researchers find pint-sized meat-eating dinosaur.

Imagine a vicious velociraptor like those in "Jurassic Park," but only as big as a modern chicken. That's what Canadian researchers say they have found, the smallest meat-eating dinosaur yet discovered in North America. This pint-sized cousin of velociraptor, weighing in at 4-to-5 pounds, "probably hunted and ate whatever it could for its size - insects, mammals, amphibians and maybe even baby dinosaurs," according to Nicholas Longrich of the University of Calgary.

The creature has been named Hesperonychus elizabethae, after the late Canadian paleontologist Elizabeth "Betsy" Nicholls, who recovered the specimen. Hesperonychus means "western claw," a reference to the enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe.

The find "emphasizes how little we actually know, and it raises the possibility that there are even smaller ones out there waiting to be found," said Longrich.

Article

Boston.com

BBC

 

[Violator79]

That gives new meaning to the term "ankle biter."

 

[Wainkerr99]

Seems everything from those periods was fugly.
Begs the question - if all the dinosaurs, which were the only form of life that sprang out of solidified stardust then, were wiped out, how did the animals we see today evolve? Were they all around at the same time?
I lack the time to reasearch this right now.

 

[warman2442]

Random thread.. lol

 

[D-rock]

I think the picture looks sort of cute in a menacing way. It would probably make a good pet. At least the rabbits and skunks around here wouldn't be a problem anymore.

 

[Wainkerr99]

^^ If they're going to clone dino's, then maybe they could start with that one.:thumbsup: :hatsoff: