Name:
Nedcolbertia
(named after Edwin Harris Colbert).
Phonetic: Ned-col-ber-she-ah.
Named By: J. I. Kirkland, B. B. Britt,
C. H. Whittle, S. K. Madsen & D. L. Burge -
1998.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Coelurosauria.
Species: N. justinhoffmanni
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Holotype about 1.5 meters long, but
further remains suggest possibly up to about 3 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Utah - Cedar Mountain
Formation [Yellow Cat Member].
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Remains of at least three
individuals.
Nedcolbertia
is a genus of theropod dinosaur known to have lived in the Western
portion of the United States during the early Cretaceous.
Nedcolbertia is known from the partial remains of
at least three
individuals, though much of these remains were damaged by erosion
before their discovery. Still, enough is known about Nedcolbertia
to reconstruct it as a small coelurosaur that had an estimated length
approaching up to three meters. It is most likely that Nedcolbertia
was a predator of smaller animals such as lizards, primitive mammals
and perhaps even small juveniles of other dinosaur types.
Nedcolbertia
was named after the palaeontologist Edwin Harris Colbert, who is
better known to everyone else as ‘Ned’. The type species named
was originally going to be ‘whittlei’, however a contest held by
Discover Card for children resulted in the winner, Justin Hofmann
having his name chosen to create the species name, hence the type
species of this dinosaur is now Nedcolbertia justinhoffmanni.
Further reading
- A small coelurosaurian theropod from the Yellow Cat Member of the
Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of eastern
Utah. - Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, New
Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 14:239-248.
- J. I. Kirkland, B. B. Britt, C. H. Whittle, S.
K. Madsen & D. L. Burge - 1998.
- Redescription of Arundel Clay ornithomimosaur material and a
reinterpretation of Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni as an "Ostrich
Dinosaur": biogeographic implications. - PeerJ. 5: e3110. - C. D.
Brownstein - 2017.