''Kuru'' (after Kurukullā, a Tibetan Buddhist deity) is a genus of

dromaeosaurid Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

from the Late Cretaceous

Barun Goyot Formation The Barun Goyot Formation (also known as Baruungoyot Formation or West Goyot Formation) is a geological formation dating to the Late Cretaceous Period. It is located within and is widely represented in the Gobi Desert Basin, in the Ömnögovi Pro ...

of Mongolia. The genus contains a single species, ''Kuru kulla'', known from a fragmentary skeleton including a partial skull.

Discovery and naming

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''Kuru kulla'', IGM 100/981, was discovered by an American-Mongolian expedition at Khulsan in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, on 5 July 1991, only hours before the discovery of ''

Shri devi ''Shri'' (named after Palden Lhamo, a Buddhist deity) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur discovered in the Barun Goyot Formation in Khulsan, Mongolia. The fossil remains of ''Shri'' date back to the Late Cretaceous period. The type a ...

''. The following year, it was reported as a distinct dromaeosaurid taxon at an SVP conference in Toronto. In their paper describing the dromaeosaurid ''

Achillobator ''Achillobator'' ( ; meaning "Achilles hero") is a genus of large dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period about 96 million to 89 million years ago in what is now the Bayan Shireh Formation. The genus is curren ...

'', Perle ''et al.'' (1999) listed a bibliographic entry titled "Morphology Dromaeosaurian dinosaur-Airakoraptor from the upper cretaceous of Mongolia". However, this bibliographic entry is clearly in error as no since paper existed and is definitely a reference to the SVP 1992 abstract, in which case "Airakoraptor" is a nomen nudum for IGM 100/981. Napoli ''et al.'' presumes the name "Airakoraptor" means "

Kumis ''Kumis'' (also spelled ''kumiss'' or ''koumiss'' or ''kumys'', see other transliterations and cognate words below under terminology and etymology – otk, airag kk, қымыз, ''qymyz'') mn, айраг, ''ääryg'') is a fermented dairy p ...

thief", after kumis, also known as ''airag'' or ''airak'', a mare- or donkey-milk product made in Central Asia. In 1997 and 1999, the specimen was identified under the correct accession number in the scientific literature. In 2006, its surangular bone was described when ''

Tsaagan ''Tsaagan'' (meaning "white") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Djadokhta Formation of the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Discovery and naming The holotype of ''Tsaagan'' was discovered in 1996 and first identified as a specimen of '' ...

'' was named. Nevertheless, still in 2007 it was confused with the so-called Zos Wash specimen found in 1998, which in fact has the accession number IGM 100/3503.Turner, A.H., P.J. Makovicky, and M.A. Norell. 2007. "Feather quill knobs in the dinosaur ''Velociraptor''. ''Science'' 317: 1721 The specimen IGM 100/981 was finally described in 2021 as the new genus and species ''Kuru kulla'' by James G. Napoli, Alexander Altieri Ruebenstahl, Bhart-Aanjan Singh Bhullar, Alan Hamilton Turner and Mark Allen Norell.

Classification

Phylogenetic analysis places ''Kuru'' as the sister taxon of ''

Adasaurus ''Adasaurus'' ( ; meaning "Ada lizard") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period about 70 million years ago. The genus is known from two partial specimens found in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia ...

'' from the slightly later

Nemegt Formation The Nemegt Formation (also known as Nemegtskaya Svita) is a geological formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, dating to the Late Cretaceous. The formation consists of river channel sediments and contains fossils of fish, turtles, crocodilian ...

. A simplified version of said phylogenetic analysis is shown below:

References

Eudromaeosaurs Maastrichtian life Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Cretaceous Mongolia Fossils of Mongolia Barun Goyot Formation Fossil taxa described in 2021 {{Theropod-stub

Discovery and naming

Classification

See also

References