Friday, November 20, 2015

Thankfulness of November. Saurornithoides

Saurornithoides seems for lack of a better description an Asian counterpart to the famous Troodon from North America. It shares many morphological similarites including being of a comparble size, large eyes and large brain. For this reason Saurornithoides is thought to have been a nocturnal hunter with the large eyes being of more use under poor light conditions. With a similarly sized brain Saurornithoides would have also been of comparable intelligence to Troodon (for a better idea click on Troodon and look up the section 'intelligence').
       There was very nearly a second species of Saurornithoides discovered in 1974 called S. junior. However a 2009 study found several differences and renamed the specimen Zanabazar. Other troodont dinosaurs from the Djadochta Formation that Saurornithoides may have lived alongside include Byronosaurus and Gobivenator.

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