Bonapartenykus
Name:
Bonapartenykus
(Bonaparte’s claw).
Phonetic: Bone-ah-part-en-e-kus.
Named By: Federico L. Agnolin, Jaime E.
Powell, Fernando E. Novas and Martin Kundrát - 2012.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Coelurosauria, Maniraptoriformes,
Alvarezsauroidea, Alvarezsauridae, Patagonykinae.
Species: B. ultimus (type).
Diet: Presumed insectivore.
Size: Estimated at 2.6 meters long.
Known locations: Argentina, Patagonia - Allen Formation.
Time period: Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian of
the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial skeleton
with two eggs. Additional egg remains found in close proximity to the
type specimen.
Patagonia
is a hot bed for dinosaur fossils, although it’s usually the
dramatic giants such as Giganotosaurus
and Argentinosaurus
that that
take the spotlight. Bonapartenykus was much
smaller than these two
dinosaurs, however for the purposes of palaeontology and
understanding of Mesozoic Patagonia it is at least just as important.
First is the dating if the type specimen to near the boundary of the
Campanian and Maastrichtian stages. This indicates that while related
forms like Patagonykus
are only known from earlier in the Cretaceous,
patagonykine alvarezsaurs survived in South America until the latest
stage of the Cretaceous. It is this relationship to Patagonykus
and
other alvarezsaurs in general that has led palaeontologists to consider
Bonapartenykus an insectivore despite the lack of a
skull in the type
specimen.
The
Bonapartenykus type specimen is thought to have been
a female due to
the presence of two eggs that are preserved in the area where the
oviducts are expected to have been. On top of this is the presence of
further egg remains that were found near to the type specimen that may
have been part of a nest belonging to this dinosaur. Another
interesting fact about the eggs is that they show the signs of fungal
contamination. It’s possible that the death of the mother meant that
the nest could not be tended which allowed the fungus to take hold.
Because the eggs of Bonapartenykus were unlike any
other dinosaur egg
so far seen they have been placed in their own family, the
Arraigadoolithidae.
Bonapartenykus
is named after the palaeontologist José F. Bonaparte who is
considered one of the most important figures in Argentine palaeontology
and is credited with naming the dinosaurs Carnotaurus,
Agustinia
and
Saltasaurus
as well as the specialised pterosaur Pterodaustro
amongst a
great many others.
Further reading
- New alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from uppermost Cretaceous
of north-western Patagonia with associated eggs. - Cretaceous Research.
35: 33–56. - Federico L. Agnolin, Jaime E. Powell, Fernando E. Novas
& Martin Kundrát - 2012.
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