''Almas'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

troodontid Troodontidae is a clade of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. During most of the 20th century, troodontid fossils were few and incomplete and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with many dinosaurian lineages. More recent fossil discov ...

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 ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. It contains a single species, ''Almas ukhaa'', named in 2017 by Pei Rui and colleagues, based on a partial articulated skeleton. The only known specimen was found in the

Djadochta Formation The Djadochta Formation (sometimes transcribed and also known as Djadokhta, Djadokata, or Dzhadokhtskaya) is a highly fossiliferous geological formation situated in Central Asia, Gobi Desert, dating from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 milli ...

, which is late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian s ...

in age.

Discovery and naming

In 1993, a joint expedition by the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

and the

Mongolian Academy of Sciences The Mongolian Academy of Sciences (, ''Mongol ulsyn Shinjlekh ukhaany Akademi'') is Mongolia's first centre of modern sciences. It came into being in 1921 when the government of newly independent Mongolia issued a resolution declaring the establi ...

discovered near Ukhaa Tolgod, the

Flaming Cliffs The Flaming Cliffs site (also known as Bayanzag ( zh, 巴彥扎格), Bain-Dzak or Bayn Dzak) ( mn, Баянзаг ''rich in saxaul''), with the alternative Mongolian name of mn, Улаан Эрэг (''red cliffs''), is a region of the Gobi Desert ...

, a skeleton of a small theropod. It was prepared by Amy Davidson. Though in subsequent years its traits were inserted in some data matrices of phylogenetic analyses, a description of the fossil was never published. In 2017, the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

''Almas ukhaa'' was named and described by Pei Rui, Mark Norell, Daniel Barta, Gabriel Bever, Michael Pittman and Xu Xing. The generic name refers to the almas, "wild man" in Mongolian, a man-like creature from Mongolian folklore. The specific name refers to its provenance. 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 ...

, IGM 100/1323, was found in a layer of the Djadochta Formation dating from the late

. It consists of a partial skeleton with skull. The skull, better preserved, was found disarticulated from the postcrania, but was considered to have belonged to the same individual. Parts of the skull roof, as well as the lower jaws, were found disconnected from the remainder of the head. The postcranial skeleton contains three sacral vertebrae, eleven front tail vertebrae, belly ribs, parts of the pelvis and parts of the hindlimbs, which lack the toes. It represents a subadult individual. Near the skeleton egg shells have been found of the

Prismatoolithidae Prismatoolithidae is an oofamily of fossil eggs. They may have been laid by ornithopods or theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on ea ...

type. Such eggs have earlier been referred to

Troodontidae Troodontidae is a clade of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. During most of the 20th century, troodontid fossils were few and incomplete and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with many dinosaurian lineages. More recent fossil disco ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q46024923 Troodontids Djadochta fauna Fossil taxa described in 2017

Discovery and naming

See also

References