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Falcarius
Falcarius (meaning "sickle cutter") is a genus of primitive therizinosaur dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Its remains were first collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subsequent findings made during the 2000s. The genus is known from multiple specimens ranging from immature to fully-grown individuals.
Falcarius was a 4 m (13 ft) long bipedal herbivore with a small head and an elongated neck and tail. Unlike advanced therizinosaurs, Falcarius had a propubic pelvis and three-toed feet with a reduced hallux (first digit).
Falcarius is the basal most known definitive therizinosaurian genus, and has been considered a transitional form connecting the typical theropod bodyplan to the unusual morphology of Therizinosauridae. Its description in 2005, following that of the basal therizinosauroid Beipiaosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of China in 1999, helped clarify the early evolution of the Therizinosauria and its relationships within the larger group of Theropoda.
The remains of Falcarius were first discovered in 1999 by commercial fossil collector Lawrence Walker at the Crystal Geyser Quarry site in Grand County. He informed paleontologist James I. Kirkland of the find, who with a team of the Utah Geological Survey from 2001 onwards began to uncover the bones that proved to be present in a two-acre (8,000-square-meter) area of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation (Yellow Cat member). Falcarius thus lived in the Early Cretaceous period. Two extensive bone beds were discovered, including the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals of the new species. The minimum number of individual animals was in 2006 estimated at three hundred. In 2005 over two thousand specimens had been excavated, mostly consisting of disarticulated bones. These included the remains of juvenile animals. In 2008 a second site was reported, the Suarez Quarry, with mainly adult individuals, but of a perhaps slightly different type. In 2010 the number of specimens from the original quarry had increased to over 2,700, and was later that year reported to have risen to over three thousand.
The first remains were partially described and discussed in 2004 on several abstracts by paleontologists Lindsay E. Zanno, then a doctoral student at the university, James I. Kirkland, Scott D. Sampson, chief curator at the University of Utah's Utah Museum of Natural History, Donald D. DeBlieux, David K. Smith and R. Kent Sanders. It was not formally named until a subsequent paper published in the May 2005 issue of the journal Nature.
Zanno subsequently and informally described Falcarius as "the ultimate in bizarre: a cross between an ostrich, a gorilla, and Edward Scissorhands." The generic name, Falcarius, is literally taken from the Latin falcarius (meaning sickle cutter) in reference to the large hand claws. The specific name, utahensis, reflects the provenance from Utah. The holotype specimen, UMNH VP 15000, consists of a partial braincase and a large number of paratypes were assigned. Falcarius has since been described in detail by Zanno in a series of studies, beginning with her thesis in 2004.
Falcarius is known from multiple specimens at different ontogenic stages. While the smallest specimen was approximately less than 1 m (3.3 ft), average adults were about 4–5 m (13–16 ft) in length weighing approximately 100 kg (220 lb).
The head anatomy of Falcarius is partially known. The skull was small and elongated. With its long neck, Falcarius could apparently reach about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) off the ground to munch leaves or fruit, possibly higher. The teeth numbered at least sixteen in the maxilla of the upper jaw. The dentary (part of the lower jaw) carried twenty-eight teeth. Its small leaf-shaped and very finely serrated maxillary teeth indicate that it consumed plant material. The front-most five teeth of the lower jaw are much longer, straighter and more pointed though, and might indicate a partially omnivorous diet including meat, e.g. small animals such as lizards. In the back of the head, the braincase was relatively large. Its lower elements were moderately inflated by pneumatised, hollowed-out, bone tissue. The large skull opening in the snout, the fenestra antorbitalis, is positioned in a depression which reaches the side of the nasal bone. There are at least five pairs of conical teeth in the front of the lower jaws. These teeth are hollowed-out at the inside. On the underside of the vertebrae of the neck there is a depression with at the mid-line a ridge. On the underside of the braincase there is a well-developed depression, the recessus basisphenoidalis. At the back of the head there are deep depressions below the occipital condyle and on the subotics, each with several pneumatic grooves.
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Falcarius
Falcarius (meaning "sickle cutter") is a genus of primitive therizinosaur dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Its remains were first collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subsequent findings made during the 2000s. The genus is known from multiple specimens ranging from immature to fully-grown individuals.
Falcarius was a 4 m (13 ft) long bipedal herbivore with a small head and an elongated neck and tail. Unlike advanced therizinosaurs, Falcarius had a propubic pelvis and three-toed feet with a reduced hallux (first digit).
Falcarius is the basal most known definitive therizinosaurian genus, and has been considered a transitional form connecting the typical theropod bodyplan to the unusual morphology of Therizinosauridae. Its description in 2005, following that of the basal therizinosauroid Beipiaosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of China in 1999, helped clarify the early evolution of the Therizinosauria and its relationships within the larger group of Theropoda.
The remains of Falcarius were first discovered in 1999 by commercial fossil collector Lawrence Walker at the Crystal Geyser Quarry site in Grand County. He informed paleontologist James I. Kirkland of the find, who with a team of the Utah Geological Survey from 2001 onwards began to uncover the bones that proved to be present in a two-acre (8,000-square-meter) area of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation (Yellow Cat member). Falcarius thus lived in the Early Cretaceous period. Two extensive bone beds were discovered, including the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals of the new species. The minimum number of individual animals was in 2006 estimated at three hundred. In 2005 over two thousand specimens had been excavated, mostly consisting of disarticulated bones. These included the remains of juvenile animals. In 2008 a second site was reported, the Suarez Quarry, with mainly adult individuals, but of a perhaps slightly different type. In 2010 the number of specimens from the original quarry had increased to over 2,700, and was later that year reported to have risen to over three thousand.
The first remains were partially described and discussed in 2004 on several abstracts by paleontologists Lindsay E. Zanno, then a doctoral student at the university, James I. Kirkland, Scott D. Sampson, chief curator at the University of Utah's Utah Museum of Natural History, Donald D. DeBlieux, David K. Smith and R. Kent Sanders. It was not formally named until a subsequent paper published in the May 2005 issue of the journal Nature.
Zanno subsequently and informally described Falcarius as "the ultimate in bizarre: a cross between an ostrich, a gorilla, and Edward Scissorhands." The generic name, Falcarius, is literally taken from the Latin falcarius (meaning sickle cutter) in reference to the large hand claws. The specific name, utahensis, reflects the provenance from Utah. The holotype specimen, UMNH VP 15000, consists of a partial braincase and a large number of paratypes were assigned. Falcarius has since been described in detail by Zanno in a series of studies, beginning with her thesis in 2004.
Falcarius is known from multiple specimens at different ontogenic stages. While the smallest specimen was approximately less than 1 m (3.3 ft), average adults were about 4–5 m (13–16 ft) in length weighing approximately 100 kg (220 lb).
The head anatomy of Falcarius is partially known. The skull was small and elongated. With its long neck, Falcarius could apparently reach about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) off the ground to munch leaves or fruit, possibly higher. The teeth numbered at least sixteen in the maxilla of the upper jaw. The dentary (part of the lower jaw) carried twenty-eight teeth. Its small leaf-shaped and very finely serrated maxillary teeth indicate that it consumed plant material. The front-most five teeth of the lower jaw are much longer, straighter and more pointed though, and might indicate a partially omnivorous diet including meat, e.g. small animals such as lizards. In the back of the head, the braincase was relatively large. Its lower elements were moderately inflated by pneumatised, hollowed-out, bone tissue. The large skull opening in the snout, the fenestra antorbitalis, is positioned in a depression which reaches the side of the nasal bone. There are at least five pairs of conical teeth in the front of the lower jaws. These teeth are hollowed-out at the inside. On the underside of the vertebrae of the neck there is a depression with at the mid-line a ridge. On the underside of the braincase there is a well-developed depression, the recessus basisphenoidalis. At the back of the head there are deep depressions below the occipital condyle and on the subotics, each with several pneumatic grooves.