Harenadraco, new troodontid from Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia (free pdf)

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

A new paper:

Free pdf:

Harenadraco prima gen. et sp. nov.

[Note that draco is masculine in Latin so "first" should be primus (masculine)...]

Sungjin Lee, Yuong-Nam Lee, Jin-Young Park, Su-Hwan Kim, Zorigt Badamkhatan, Damdinsuren Idersaikhan & Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar (2024)
The first troodontid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2364746
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2024.2364746
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2024.2364746

Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/02724634.2024.2364746


Among non-avian dinosaurs, troodontids are relatively rare but diverse. The Nemegt Basin in the Mongolian Gobi Desert, which incorporates three of the most fossiliferous beds in the world, is one such region with high troodontid diversity and has also produced eight troodontid taxa until now. The diversity of troodontids is biased towards the two formations, Nemegt and Djadochta. Despite its rich vertebrate fossil record, no troodontids have been described from the Baruungoyot Formation. This faunal absence is perplexing as the Baruungoyot Formation has often been considered intermediate between the other two units in stratigraphy and paleoenvironment, but there are no definite troodontid materials that could fill this ‘gap.’ Here, we report a new troodontid, Harenadraco prima gen. et sp. nov., from the Baruungoyot Formation in Hermiin Tsav, Mongolia. It is represented by an incomplete skeleton that mainly consists of partially articulated left hind limb elements. Harenadraco is small and lightly built like other troodontids, but its tarsometatarsus exhibits extreme slenderness comparable only to Philovenator among cursorial non-avian maniraptorans. It also implies high cursoriality that could be an adaptation of Harenadraco to its environment where potential prey animals like mammals and predators such as eudromaeosaurs were likely to be agile. The discovery of Harenadraco confirms the presence of troodontids in all three formations in the Nemegt Basin.

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[mkir...@gmail.com]

One of the reviewers should have caught the Latin gender mistake.    

[Thomas Richard Holtz]

Two ways to tell I wasn't a reviewer:

* The gender issue in the name

* The fact that they plotted raw metatarsal ratios rather than residuals from the mean to account for allometry.

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[Tim Williams]

> Harenadraco prima gen. et sp. nov.

Latin 'harena' (sand) gave us the modern English word 'arena'.  Over time, the word 'harena' lost the aspiration of the h and became 'arena'.

In ancient Roman times, the harena/arena was a place for public entertainment, with the floor covered in sand - such as gladiatorial combat (the sand soaked up the blood, among other practical reasons).