Mei (dinosaur)

Live reconstruction of Mei

• China (Liaoning)

Mei is a dinosaur genus of the family of Troodontidae within the Theropoda. This little dinosaur lived during the Cretaceous period in China today.

Features

From Mei the skeleton almost completely preserved a not quite full-grown animal is obtained. It is approximately 0.5 meters long, the animal should be reached in about Truthuhngröße. Like all representatives of Troodontidae he was a slim -built, probably carnivorous dinosaur. The integument is not received, whether Mei was feathery, is not known. Especially the discovery of Mei was that the animal apparently died in his sleep and reveals the posture. The head was tucked under his left arm - an attitude that is also present in modern birds - and the tail wrapped around the body.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Mei were found in the Yixian Formation in northeast China's Liaoning Province and first described in 2004. Type species and only known species is Mei long. The name comes from the Chinese, mei (寐) means " deep sleep " and long (龙) "dragon". The name Mei is the shortest generic name of a dinosaur.

The finds are dated to the Early Cretaceous ( Hauterivian ) on an age 134-131 million years.

System

Systematically Mei is incorporated into the Troodontidae. He is regarded as relatively primitive member of this group and may have been closely related to Sinovenator. The bird-like sleeping posture is a further indication of the origin of birds from theropod and makes it clear that probably many bird typical behaviors have been present in this dinosaur group.