A new Big Bird Dinosaur

A massively large Oviraptorosaurian dinosaur described by Dr. Xing Xu and colleagues has been found in Inner Mongolia in the Senonian Iren Dabasu Formation. Typical Oviraptors are about the size of living ostriches and had similar body proportions. However, this giant stood an estimated 8 meters in length and 3.5 meters in height. Approperately named Gigantoraptor erlianensis, the new dinosaur is a basal member of the Oviraptoridae family, and represents a more cursorial adapted dinosaur. The findings are reported in this week's journal Nature.

Xu, X., Q. Tan, J. Wang, X. Zhao, L. Tan. 2007. A gigantic bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China. Nature 447, 844-847 (14 June 2007).

A news story of the discovery can be found here:LINK