Sciurumimus
Sciurumimus was a small meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Germany. It looked a bit like a tiny squirrel because it had a long, fluffy tail. Even though it was a young dinosaur, it was already a fast hunter.1
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Fun facts
Sciurumimus is known from just one beautifully preserved baby skeleton.1
Its tail had long, fuzzy filaments that looked like a squirrel's tail, which is how it got its name.1
The fossil even shows some muscle tissue along the back of its leg.1
Sciurumimus had big eyes and a large head compared to its body, like a baby animal.1
Scientists are not sure where Sciurumimus belongs on the dinosaur family tree. Some say it is a megalosauroid, others think it is a coelurosaur.1
Most asked questions about Sciurumimus
?How big was Sciurumimus?
The only known fossil is a baby about 70 cm (2.3 ft) long. Adults probably reached 6 metres (19.7 ft) or more.2
?Did Sciurumimus have feathers?
Yes. The fossil shows long, hair-like filaments on the tail and body that are identical to stage 1 feathers found in other dinosaurs.13
?What did Sciurumimus eat?
The baby probably ate insects and other small prey, based on its slender, pointed teeth. Adults likely hunted larger dinosaurs.2
?Is Sciurumimus a dinosaur?
Yes, it is a theropod dinosaur, a meat-eater that lived about 150 million years ago in what is now Germany.1
?Why is it called Sciurumimus?
Its name means 'squirrel mimic' because its fluffy tail looks like a tree squirrel's tail.1
?How fast could Sciurumimus run?
Scientists do not know its exact speed, but as a small, fast hunter it was probably quick on its feet.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Because it had feathery filaments, Sciurumimus was a bird-like dinosaur.
Truth: Sciurumimus was a meat-eating theropod dinosaur, not a bird, and its filaments were simple stage 1 feathers similar to those found in some ornithischian dinosaurs and early tyrannosaurs.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Sciurumimus
- Named by
- Rauhut et al. 20124
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Megalosauroidea4
- Classification
- Theropoda4
- Age of the rocks
- 152 to 149 million years (Kimmeridgian)4
- Rock formations
- Torleite4
- Countries
- Germany4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- The first and only Sciurumimus fossil was found in a limestone quarry near Painten, Germany, and named by scientists Rauhut, Foth, Tischlinger, and Norell in 2012.14
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether Sciurumimus is a basal megalosauroid or a coelurosaur, because its only known skeleton is from a very young animal, making its adult features hard to guess.1
Where the facts come from
- Sciurumimus (en.wikipedia.org)
- A new, juvenile predatory dinosaur from Bavaria (snsb.de)
- Exceptionally preserved juvenile megalosauroid theropod ... (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Sciurumimus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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