Bannykus

Bannykus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 125–113 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Clade:Dinosauria
Order:Saurischia
Suborder:Theropoda
Superfamily:†Alvarezsauroidea
Genus:†Bannykus
Xu et al., 2018
Type species
†Bannykus wulatensis
Xu et al., 2018

Bannykus is an alvarezsaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Bayin-Gobi Formation of Inner Mongolia, China. It includes one species, Bannykus wulatensis. It is large for an alvarezsaur, with an estimated weight of 24kg based on femoral circumference.[1]

Evolutionary significance

Scaled reconstruction

Bannykus, along with Xiyunykus, fills a 70-million year gap in alvarezsaur evolution by exhibiting cranial and postcranial morphologies intermediate between the typical theropod forelimb of Haplocheirus and the highly reduced forelimbs and minute teeth of Late Cretaceous alvarezsaurids.

References

  1. ↑ Xu, Xing; Choiniere, Jonah; Tan, Qingwei; Benson, Roger B.J; Clark, James; Sullivan, Corwin; Zhao, Qi; Han, Fenglu; Ma, Qingyu; He, Yiming; Wang, Shuo; Xing, Hai; Tan, Lin (2018). "Two Early Cretaceous Fossils Document Transitional Stages in Alvarezsaurian Dinosaur Evolution". Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.057.


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