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as long as 3 house cats nose to tail🍌as long as 8 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house cat🍌as heavy as 42 bananas🏃could run 100 metres in 12 seconds (the fastest human needs 9.6)How big was Shanag compared to YOU?
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Fun facts
Shanag is known from only a partial skull: a right maxilla (upper jaw bone), dentary (lower jaw bone), and part of the splenial (a jaw bone).2
It was a dromaeosaurid, meaning it was a close relative of famous raptors like Velociraptor and Deinonychus.2
Shanag had special air pockets inside its jawbone between the tooth sockets, called interalveolar pneumatic cavities.2
Unlike many other theropods, Shanag lacked a promaxillary fenestra, a small opening in the front of the snout.2
Shanag lived alongside Psittacosaurus, a small horned dinosaur, and large sauropods in the Öösh region.1
The fossils of Shanag were found in rocks that are about 130 million years old, from the Early Cretaceous period.1
Most asked questions about Shanag
?How big was Shanag?
Shanag was a small predator, about 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) long and weighing around 5 kilograms (11 pounds).3
?Did Shanag have feathers?
Yes, as a theropod, Shanag had hollow bones and feathers. Its feathers helped with climbing, thermoregulation, and stabilizing while on prey.3
?What did Shanag eat?
Shanag was a meat-eating dinosaur with sharp teeth and claws. It likely used its claws to grip and pin down prey, similar to modern birds of prey.3
?Is Shanag a dromaeosaurid?
It may be a dromaeosaurid, but some researchers are skeptical. It shows a mix of dromaeosaurid, troodontid, and basal avialan traits, so its exact classification is debated.3
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Shanag
- Named by
- Turner et al. 20074
- Group
- Raptors
- Family / clade
- Dromaeosauridae4
- Classification
- Theropoda > Dromaeosauridae4
- Age of the rocks
- 143 to 100 million years (Berriasian / Albian)4
- Rock formations
- Öösh4
- Countries
- Mongolia4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Shanag was named in 2007 by Alan H. Turner, Sunny H. Hwang, and Mark A. Norell. The only known fossil was found by a Mongolian Academy of Sciences,American Museum of Natural History expedition in 1999 at the Öösh locality in Mongolia.21
- Still debated
- Scientists are unsure about the exact size of Shanag because only a partial skull has been found.2
Where the facts come from
- digitallibrary.amnh.org (digitallibrary.amnh.org)
- A small derived theropod from Öösh, early Cretaceous, Baykhangor Mongolia ; American Museum novitates, no. 3557 (digitallibrary.amnh.org)
- Shanag (en.wikipedia.org)
- Shanag in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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