Sinornithoides

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Sinornithoides

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Infraorder:	Deinonychosauria
Family:	Troodontidae
Genus:	Sinornithoides Russell & Dong, 1993

Species

S. youngi Russell & Dong, 1993 (type)

Sinornithoides (meaning "Chinese Bird Form") is a genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur. It lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian to Albian stages, around 120 to 100 million years ago). It is one of the smallest known theropods, approximately 1 meter long (3 ft). It lived in China, and probably ate invertebrates and other small prey.

Sinornithoides youngi, the type species, was described in 1993 by Dale Russell and Dong Zhiming. It is represented by a holotype which is articulated and nearly complete except for the roof of the skull and the cervical and dorsal vertebrae, along with some other referred skeletal elements. The holotype is preserved in much the same roosting position as another troodontid fossil, that of Mei long, with its snout tucked under its left hand.

[edit] References

Russell, D. and Dong, Z. (1993). "A nearly complete skeleton of a new troodontid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Ordos Basin, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China." ' 30 (10-11); 2163-2173

Currie, P. and Dong, Z. (2001). "New information on Cretaceous troodontids from the People's Republic of China" "'Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 38: 1753–1766 DOI: 10.1139/cjes-38-12-1753