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Ornithomimids from Upper Cretaceous of Uzbekistan



Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


A new paper:

Hans-Dieter Sues & Alexander Averianov (2016) [2015]
Ornithomimidae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bissekty Formation
(Upper Cretaceous: Turonian) of Uzbekistan.
Cretaceous Research 57: 90–110
doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.07.012
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667115300355

The stratigraphically oldest remains of ornithomimid theropod
dinosaurs are known from the Cenomanian Khodzhakul Formation and the
Turonian Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The ornithomimid from the
Bissekty Formation is documented by more than 800 isolated bones that
represent much of the skeleton. It shows at least three unambiguous
synapomorphies of Ornithomimidae: length of anterior cervical centra
three to five times greater than transverse width; low and rounded
fibular crest of tibia; metatarsal III pinched between metatarsals II
and IV; and proximal end of metatarsal III not visible in anterior
view. Phylogenetic analysis, based on a dataset with 568 morphological
characters and including all known ornithomimosaurian taxa, places the
ornithomimid from the Bissekty Formation near the base of the
ornithomimid radiation, between Archaeornithomimus asiaticus and
Sinornithomimus dongi.