<snip>Questions about this new 15-foot-long animal are as big and numerous as its scattered bones: Why are there so many and why are they congregated here, Kirkland wonders. And although he refers to it as a theropod a meat-eater Kirkland has reason to suspect its dining habits: Was this animal in the process of becoming an omnivore?
Although Kirkland thinks he knows the lineage to which this new dinosaur belongs (the bird-like maniraptors) he'll require no small amount of evidence to prove it, he says, because it so barely belongs.
"This is very important stuff," he explains. "It's a primitive stage the beginning of a line that is much better known later, right near the beginning of the bird-like dinosaur line." ...
Can't wait til the paper is published.
Nick Gardner