Mei

Name: Mei (Sleep soundly).
Phonetic: May.
Named By: Xing Xu & Mark Norell - 2004.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda, Troodontidae.
Species: M. long (type).
Type: Carnivore.
Size: Type specimen 53 centimetres long, but does not represent an adult.
Known locations: China, Liaoning province.
Time period: Valanginian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: A well preserved juvenile.

       Mei was named because it was found in a sleeping pose, not unlike birds today. Study of the bones has revealed they were not totally fused, meaning that the animal was a juvenile. Analysis of the stone the fossil was discovered in shows it to have been buried by volcanic ash. A second specimen has was later found, and this individual too was in a sleeping position similar to the holotype. Mei was a small troodontid dinosaur and would have been a predator of other small animals.

Further reading
- A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture. - Nature. 431 (7010): 838–841. - Xing Xu & Mark A. Norell - 2004.
- A Second Soundly Sleeping Dragon: New Anatomical Details of the Chinese Troodontid Mei long with Implications for Phylogeny and Taphonomy. - PLOS ONE. 7 (9): e45203.- Chunling Gao, Eric M. Morschhauser, David J. Varricchio, Jinyuan Liu & Bo Zhao - 2012.

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