Heptasteornis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heptasteornis
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	?Saurischia
Suborder:	?Theropoda
Infraorder:	?Coelurosauria
Family:	?Alvarezsauridae
Genus:	Heptasteornis
Species:	H. andrewsi

Binomial name

Heptasteornis andrewsi
Harrison & Walker, 1975

Heptasteornis is the name given to a dubious genus of small dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The type (and only known) species is Heptasteornis andrewsi, described by Harrison and Walker in 1975. The fossil was discovered in Romania.

It is sometimes considered synonymous with Bradycneme or Elopteryx, but given the fragmentary nature of the fossils, little is known about this animal. The genus is thus considered a nomen dubium.

It was reassessed as an alvarezsaurid by Naish (2004).

[edit] References

Harrison, C.J.O., and Walker, C.A. 1975. The Bradycnemidae, a new family of owls from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania. Palaeontology 18(3):563-570.
Naish, D. Heptasteornis was no ornithomimid, troodontid, dromaeosaurid or owl: the first alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Europe. Neus Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Mh. 7:385-401.