''Bagaraatan'' (/'ba-ɣa-raa-tan/ meaning 'small' ''baɣa'' + 'carnivorous animal, beast of prey' ''araatan'' in Mongolian) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

period. Its fossils were found in the

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, crocodilians, ...

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 ...

. ''Bagaraatan'' may have been around 3 to 4 metres (9.8 to 13 ft) in length. 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 specim ...

, ''B. ostromi'', was described by Osmolska in 1996. The post-cranial ( ZPAL MgD-I/108) skeleton has been described as "bird-like", while the skull exhibits features of several different theropod groups.

Classification

Holtz Holtz is the surname of: * Alexander Holtz (born 2002), Swedish ice hockey player * Andrew Holtz, American journalist * Carl Holtz (1920–2006), American oarsman and farmer * Daniel Holtz, a fictional character on the TV series ''Angel'' * Eric ...

classified ''Bagaraatan'' as a basal

tyrannosaur Tyrannosauroidea (meaning 'tyrant lizard forms') is a superfamily (or clade) of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontin ...

oid, Coria identified it as a

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 disco ...

, and Rauhut placed it in Maniraptora.O. W. M. Rauhut (2003). The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs. ''Special Papers in Palaeontology'' 69: 1-213. Mark Loewen ''et al.'' placed it in basal Tyrannosauroidea, agreeing with the placement by Holtz. Below is the cladogram by Loewen ''et al.'' in 2013.

References

Sources

* Osmolska, H. (1996). "An unusual theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia". ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 41; 1-3

External links

Dinosaur Mailing List entry which discusses the genus
Tyrannosaurs Maastrichtian life Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Cretaceous Mongolia Fossils of Mongolia Nemegt fauna Fossil taxa described in 1996 Taxa named by Halszka Osmólska {{Cretaceous-reptile-stub