#ichabodcraniosaurus

[alphynix]

About 72 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous of what is now Mongolia, a dead dromaeosaurid dinosaur lost its head.

30 years ago, in 1991, its headless fossilized remains were discovered during a joint Mongolian Academy of Sciences / American Museum of Natural History expedition in the Gobi Desert.

For a long time the specimen was known only by the nickname of "Ichabodcraniosaurus", in reference to a character haunted by a headless ghost in the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – but now it's finally been given a full scientific description and a proper name.

Say hello to the first new non-avian dinosaur of 2021, Shri devi!

Named after a buddhist deity, this little dinosaur was around 2m long (6'6"), roughly the size of a modern peacock or wild turkey. It was a very close relative of Velociraptor, but lived in a slightly different part of the ancient Gobi than its famous cousin, giving us a glimpse of how dromaeosaurid species varied across that region.

[ From fig 28 in Turner, A. H. et al (2021). A New Dromaeosaurid from the Late Cretaceous Khulsan Locality of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates. https://doi.org/10.1206/3965.1 ]

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[new-dinosaurs]

Shri devi Turner et al., 2021 (new genus and species)

(Vertebrae, hips, and right hindlimb of Shri devi, from Turner et al., 2021)

Meaning of name: Shri devi = Shri Devi [a protector deity in Tibetan/Mongolian Buddhism]

Age: Late Cretaceous (Campanian?)

Where found: Barun Goyot Formation, Ömnögov, Mongolia

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual, including the hips, a complete hindlimb, and much of the vertebral column.

Notes: Shri was a velociraptorine dromaeosaurid, making it a close relative of Velociraptor. The two were certainly very similar to each other, but differed in details of their vertebrae. Shri lived alongside the smaller halszkaraptorine dromaeosaurid Hulsanpes, revealing an interesting pattern in which different Late Cretaceous localities of Central Asia often had a different coexisting velociraptorine–halszkaraptorine pair of their own. Other examples include Tsaagan (velociraptorine) and Halszkaraptor (halszkaraptorine, of course) both being known from Ukhaa Tolgod, and Velociraptor (velociraptorine, of course) and Mahakala (halszkaraptorine) both being known from Tugrugyin Shireh.

When it was first unearthed in the 1990s, Shri was nicknamed “Ichabodcraniosaurus”, as the specimen is missing its skull despite being very well preserved. (The nickname references the character Ichabod Crane, who gets chased by the Headless Horseman in the short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.)

Reference: Turner, A.H., S. Montanari, and M.A. Norell. 2021. A new dromaeosaurid from the Late Cretaceous Khulsan locality of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 3965: 1–48. doi: 10.1206/3965.1

#Palaeoblr #Dinosaurs #Shri #Late Cretaceous #Asia #Dromaeosauridae #2021 #Extinct