"We find that, in general, predatory coelurosaurian dinosaurs bite in the same way through a puncture-and-pull system, but troodontids and
dromaeosaurids may have preferred different prey," she adds, noting that troodontids apparently favored requiring lower bite forces in comparison to dromeosaurs.
Richardoestesia sp., a tiny maniraptoran that may be a new taxon, and two
dromaeosaurids: cf.
The study focuses on
dromaeosaurids, a group of small predatory dinosaurs that include the famous Velociraptor and its larger relative, Deinonychus.
After years of review, Pol and Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas reported in Nature that fragments of vertebrae and ribs, parts of legs, and a signature claw on foot provided the first definitive evidence of
dromaeosaurids, or raptors, in South America similar to the velociraptor (of the film Jurassic Park fame).
The creature, dubbed Buitreraptor gonzalezorum, belonged to a group of bipedal, meat-eating dinosaurs called
dromaeosaurids, the clan of raptors that includes the darting, humansize velociraptors made famous in the 1993 film Jurassic Park'.
Theropod teeth with morphology usually attributed to
dromaeosaurids were also collected in Andres.
The research also shows for the first time that the Sauropod titanosaurus (an herbivorous quadruped that grew to enormous sizes), as well as the nodosaurid dinosaurs (armoured herbivores), preferred swampy habitats, while other dinosaurs such as the
dromaeosaurids (relatively small-sized carnivores, closely related to birds) lived in practically all types of environments.
It belongs, however, to a different family of dinosaurs called
dromaeosaurids, which also includes Velociraptor.