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Fossil of Ant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered In China

Posted by samzenpus on from the ancient-picnic-defender dept.

thomst writes "Charles Q. Choi of LiveScience reports that a farmer in southern Henan Province in China has dug up the first known ant-eating dinosaur, a half-meter-long theropod (the dinosaur family to which T. Rex belongs), whose fossilized remains were described as 'fairly intact'. The 83- to 89-million-year-old pygmy dinosaur has been named named Xixianykus zhangi by Xig Xu, De-you Wang, Corwin Sullivan, David Hone, Feng-lu Han, Rong-hao Yan, and Fu-ming Du, whose paper on the critter, A basal parvicursorine (Theropoda: Alvarezsauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of China, was published in the March 29 issue of Zootaxa (the abstract is available in PDF format for free, the full article is paywall-protected.)"

6 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Ant eating dinosaur? by Fluffeh · · Score: 1, Funny

    Whoa, I must have missed a whole bit there about how far back insects date than. I always assumed that there was little insect life at that time - clearly I have been misled all this time.

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  2. Photo by Z34107 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Missing from the summary: A photo of the ant-eating dinosaur.

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  3. Question by Allnighterking · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does anyone know tf the dinosaur was dead before the ant started eating it, or did it die because the ant was eating it. (must have been one heck of a big ant too.)

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  4. WOW by grcumb · · Score: 1, Funny

    A dinosaur named Xixianykus zhangi, discovered by Xig Xu!

    Sorry, I don't have anything to add to this discussion. I just wanted to say Xixianykus zhangi and Xig Xu again.

    Xixianykus zhangi!

    Xig Xu!

    Okay, I think I'm done. Now, to find some way to clean all this spittle off my monitor....

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  5. Re:Am I the only one that .... by T+Murphy · · Score: 2, Funny

    You're the only one. Everyone else knows not to believe any article anywhere until it is confirmed by The Daily Mail.

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  6. And In Other News... by hyades1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence of a dinosaur that bitches at its mate when he gets home late from work and smelling of beer. The creature apparently has a tongue that's hinged in the middle and designed to wag at both ends simultaneously, and jaw muscles better fitted to an animal three times its size.

    I have no intention of attempting to assign a scientific name to this creature.

    I want to live.

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