Sciurumimus
Prepared holotype of Sciurumimus alberdoerferi
- Painten, Germany
- Sciurumimus albersdoerferi Rauhut et al. 2,012
Sciurumimus is a genus theropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic. The genus includes Sciurumimus albersdoerferi with a single known species, which was first described in 2012 by means of an almost perfectly preserved fossil skeleton of a young animal, which was found in the Bavarian village Painten. Sciurumimus reached mature body may have a length of several meters, was feathered at least as young and moved bipedal as a typical theropod continued. Sciurumimus considered as representative of the basal Megalosauridae.
Features
The only known copy of Sciurumimus is a juvenile individual of approximately 72 cm in length and about 8 cm long skull. It is probably a newly hatched young; adult animals may have reached far greater extent. Allosaurus hatchlings about were significantly shorter in a comparable stage of development with 42 cm and reached a mature length of about 7 m. Adult animals of Sciurumimus quite likely have possessed a body length of 5 m or more, if there were no Inselverzwergung in this genus.
The head is compared with the rest of the body is relatively large and has a very large nose openings. The front four teeth of the upper jaw are unnotched, the remaining 33-35 upper teeth are serrated and the rear clearly have strong backward. Thus, they differ markedly from the usual dentition of Tetanurae. One possible explanation for this is that it came at a certain stage of development to a dentition in which the teeth were replaced with jagged sides. Probably young animals fed on other food than the adults. The large head is seen with the comparatively large eyes as an indication that the baby scheme has already existed in dinosaurs. Sciurumimus has relatively short and strong front legs. They have three long toes limbs and claws, which together account for about 45% of leg length. The hind legs, however, are like all theropods long ( about 11 cm without feet ) and allowed the animals swift bipedal locomotion. The tail is long and consists of a total of 59 vertebrae.
Around the fossil skeleton, there are fine prints and remains of a feather fluff that covered the whole body of the animal apparently. It consists of simple, round 0.2 mm thick, hair-like feathers, and the tail is particularly pronounced. Long and dense filamentary structures give it a fur -like surface and a bushy appearance.
Location and fossil material
The holotype of Sciurumimus ( BMMS BK 11) was found in 2009 or 2010 during excavations at the lime works at Rygol Painten in southern Germany. The Fund is part of the limestone layer of the Kelheimer beckeri zone of Kimmeridgiums, a chronostratigraphic stage of the Upper Jurassic. The fossil is approximately 151 million years old and one of the world's best preserved dinosaur fossils. The geologist and fossil dealers Raimund Albers villages had financed the excavations, his wife Birgit, who owns the fossil, reported it as a cultural and left it to the Solnhofen mayor -Müller Museum on permanent loan.
Taxonomy and systematics
Sciurumimus
Duriavenator
Streptospondylus
Magnosaurus
Dubreuillosaurus
Sciurumimus albersdoerferi 2012 was described by Oliver Rauhut, Christian Foth, Helmut table Linger and Mark A. Norell as a new species in a monotypic genus. The researchers chose the generic name based on the bushy tail of the animal, which is reminiscent of the squirrels (Sciurus ) ( mimus " imitators "). The specific epithet honors the financier of the research, Raimund Albers villages.
Based on its skeletal features Sciurumimus was classified as very representative of the original Megalosauroidea. He is the remaining representatives of the group over as sister taxon. The fact that the proto- feathers of the genus do not differ in shape from the fluff that was found in some bird Beck dinosaurs such as Psittacosaurus, suggests that evolve springs not only in theropods. Rather, they might have been an original feature of all dinosaurs and pterosaurs may have been present even at. In order for this feature would be a synapomorphy (shared derived character ) the Ornithodira.