#Headline Tell the Truth# [Dinosaur Kingdom] A new member of Hell Creek's free-range chicken
The Hell Creek Formation is a representative stratum of North America at the end of the Cretaceous period, as it was in this formation that Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered. With the abundant fossil burial, the discovery and naming of new dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation has not stopped, and just in 2023, a swollen-headed dragon was named, which is Platytholus clemensi.
Caption: Clined's broad-capped dragon, the picture comes from the Internet
In January 2024, the Hell Creek Formation welcomed a new dinosaur, the Eoneophron. The genus name of the first white vulture comes from the Greek words "Eo" (meaning "beginning", "dawn") and "Neophron" (the genus name of the white vulture, also known as "the pharaoh's chicken"). The type species name of Eoneophron infernalis comes from the Latin word for "hell", as the fossils come from the formation of the Hellcreek Formation.
Caption: White vultures, the picture comes from the Internet
The fossil of the archaeosaurus vulture, from Mead County, South Dakota, USA, dated to 2014, includes only part of the skeleton of the right hind limb (CM 96523). After research, paleontologists determined that it belonged to the family Nearjagnatidae, was about 6 years old at the time of death, and belonged to a near-adult individual. In 2024, paleontologists published a paper titled "A new oviraptorosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the end-Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of North America," officially naming him.
Caption: Fossil of the First White Vulture Dragon, image from the paper
Caption: A cross-section of a fossil of the First White Vulture Dragon, image from the paper
The white vulture was covered with feathers, like a large free-roaming chicken, with a body length of about 2.5 meters, a hip height of 1.3 meters, and a weight of 78 kilograms. When the first white vulture raises its head, it can reach a distance of up to 2 meters from the ground, its head is short and high, and it is likely to have a bony crown on top of its head. The toothless beak of the first white vulture was replaced by a hard, beak, and they were omnivorous, eating both fruits and small animals. With a long, curved neck, a strong body, and a short tail, the First White Vulture walked on two feet on its strong hind limbs, which were used to grab food or fight, as each finger had large claws.
Caption: Comparison of the size of the first white vulture dragon and humans, the picture comes from the Internet
The first white vulture dragon lived at the end of the Cretaceous period, 68 million to 66 million years ago, because it was found in the Hell Creek Formation, so it once lived with the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, ankylosaurus, swollen head dragon, Edmontonsaurus and so on. In the Hell Creek Formation, paleontologists have also discovered two other species of near-jawed dragons, namely Anzu and MOR 752 (unnamed), of which Anzu was large, up to 3.7 meters long and weighed about 300 kilograms. Although they both belong to the family Nymagnosauridae, the relationship between Archaeopterae vultures and Anzusaurus is distant, and the range is closely related to Citipes and Elmisaurus, and it appears that there was a rich diversity of Nearjaws in the end of Cretaceous North America, including the Hell Creek Formation.
Caption: The skeleton of Anzulong, the picture comes from the Internet
Caption: The restoration of the Swift Dragon, the picture comes from the Internet
Caption: Phylogenetic location of the archaeosaurus vulture, image from the paper
The discovery of the archaeosaurus not only enriched the species of the Late Cretaceous North American promognathidae, but also built a richer ecological composition of the Hellstream dinosaurs, and it also became an important prey for juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex and Dakota raptors.
Caption: The first white vulture dragon (top left) and Anzu dragon (top right) and MOR 752, the picture comes from the Internet
Research Papers:
Atkins-Weltman, K. L.; Simon, D. J.; Woodward, H. N.; Funston, G. F.; Snively, E. (2024). "A new oviraptorosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the end-Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of North America". PLOS ONE. 19 (1). e0294901. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0294901.
Text editor: Jiang's Microraptor
The picture comes from the Internet and the paper, invaded and deleted