Bagaraatan

Name: Bagaraatan (Small hunter).
Phonetic: Ba-ga-raa-tan.
Named By: Osmolska - 1996.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda - further classification is uncertain, refer to main text.
Species: B. ostromi (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Femur 31.5 centimetres long, Tibia 36.5 centimetres long, Fibula 31.5 centimetres long. Total body size is uncertain due to much of the skeleton being missing, but roughly estimated on this website to be about 2.7 meters long.
Known locations: Mongolia - Nemegt Formation.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Mandible (lower jaw) and partial post cranial remains, including the upper legs, pelvis and caudal vertebrae.

       The problem with Bagaraatan is that it is only known from partial remains that in themselves could be placed within a variety of different theropod groups. Leading palaeontologists have described Bagaraatan as a tyrannosaur, troodontid and even a maniraptorian, all of the main carnivorous theropod classes that were active in Asia towards the end of the Cretaceous.
       Named after the Mongolian for 'small hunter', the only thing that can be said about Bagaraatan is that it was a bipedal dinosaur, like other theropods, and that it was a carnivore.

Further reading
- An unusual theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 41(1):1-38. - H. Osm�lska - 1996.

Random favourites