Talos - Survey - Day 22

[dino_a_day]

Discovered in 2008 along the shores of the inland sea that once filled most of Utah, Talos sampsoni is an important troodontid dinosaur for paleontologists and paleoartists in that it confirmed what was speculated about in the 1960s with regard to limb morphology in these dinosaurs. Unlike the heavier-built dromaeosaurs, troodontids, and Talos in particular, had very long, thin legs, indicating it was a very quick runner, and also relatively short arms - these were definitely not gliders or climbers, but fast, active ground-dwelling hunters. Only one Talos specimen has been found, and it has a cracked, damaged sickle claw on its left foot, suggesting that just like in the dromaeosaurs, and unlike some of their smaller arboreal relatives, troodontids used that claw for combat.

Comments

[needled_ink_1975]

He/she reminds me a lot of a Secretary bird, and somewhat of a Kori bustard. (If I anthropomorphize here) I bet Sec. birds are miffed that somewhere along the line they lost that sickle claw... although the loss certainly made sure that territorial and mating squabbles are usually less-than-lethal.

So you've moved, and I hope settling is going smoothly.

And thanks as always for the drawings :)

–Nici

[dino_a_day]

Thanks! Yeah, Secretary Birds are definitely a return to a form very similar to their ancient ancestors - and the Seriemas and to some extent the Crested Caracaras are American equivalents, as well. One of the ones I'll do later is Titanis, which is definitely on the bird end of the dinosaur spectrum, and it was more a return to the T-rex style of hunter, but during the last ice age instead of millions of years ago.