A tiny new dinosaur - Juravenator starki
Juravenator starki is a small carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic discovered in what is now Germany. What’s interesting about this little critter is that it doesn’t show signs of feathers.
Many sites are reporting on this newly announced dinosaur discovery, including:
National Geographic, Scaly New Dinosaur Creates Flap Over Feathers’ Evolution
The Age (AU), New dinosaur fossil ruffles a few feathers
Scientific American, Scaly Dino Find Complicates Feather Evolution
The researchers published their findings in Nature. You can read the first paragraph of A new carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen archipelago and see the pictures/figures. Of course, for full access check your library!
The name Juravenator refers to the Jura Mountains of Bavaria where the fossil was found, and starki refers to the Stark family that owns the fossil-bearing limestone quarry. It was discovered about 10 years ago, but took many years to prepare because of the extremely hard limestone encasing the fossil. It had been nicknamed Borsti in German, a name commonly given to bristle-haired dogs, on the assumption the creature was endowed with bristly protofeathers.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Saurischia
Infraorder: Coelurosauria
Family: Coeluridae
Genus: Juravenator