Ricardoestesia
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Ricardoestesia gilmorei |
Ricardoestesia gilmorei is a medium sized (~100kg) theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. It is known from a single pair of lower jaw bones and a large number of isolated teeth. The jaws are slender and rather long but the teeth are small and finely serrated. It has been suggested that Ricardoestesia was a fish eater, like a heron. Because so little is known of the animal, its relationships are unclear. However, the jaws resemble Archaeopteryx, Troodontidae and some Dromaeosauridae, in having a strong groove on the lateral surface. The jaws and a number of teeth come from Dinosaur Provincial Park but Ricardoestesia teeth are also found in the Late Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation, and the Scollard Formation. Its teeth are extremely common in the Lance Formation. Paronychodon teeth may come from Ricardoestesia. The genus is named for Richard Estes, to honor his important work on the small vertebrates of the Late Cretaceous.
The name was spelled as Richardoestesia in the original publication (except in one figure caption), but this was an editorial typo, according to the authors [1]. Both spellings are used and have their proponents (and both have cases which can be supported by ICZN rules), and the question has inspired heated debates [2].
[edit] References
- Baszio, S. 1997. Investigations on Canadian dinosaurs: systematic palaeontology of isolated dinosaur teeth from the Latest Cretaceous of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Courier Forschunginstitut Senckenberg 196:33-77.
- Currie, P. J., K. J. Rigby, and R. E. Sloan. 1990. Theropod teeth from the Judith River Formation of southern Alberta, Canada. Pp. 107-125. In P. J. Currie, and K. Carpenter, eds. Dinosaur Systematics: Perspectives and Approaches. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Sankey, J. T., D. B. Brinkman, M. Guenther, and P. J. Currie. 2002. Small theropod and bird teeth from the Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) Judith River Group, Alberta. Journal of Paleontology 76(4):751-763.
