New Dinosaur Albertavenator curiei

NOTE to those of you who are on line right now... Sorry I took a while to put the printable coloring pages up of Albertavenator and Troodon...I was drawing the Troodon.  Turned out pretty cool...don't ya think?

A new  species of dinosaur has been identified.  It was found in the badlands near the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.  It was actually found in 1980 with additional specimens found in 193 and 1996.   New examinations of the skull fragments,(found with the first specimen),  have led to the determination that it was a new species.  At first they thought it was the very gifted (smart) dinosaur called Troodon.  Now the new species is named, Albertavenator curiei.  It was name after the Canadian privince of Alberta and after the famous paleontologist Phillip Curie.  Venator means hunter in Latin.  Albertavenator lived about 71 million years ago.  A bit before T.rex.

Albertavenator curiei

Albertavanator was probably an omnivore, it ate both plants and other animals.  Someone said that it was like a very big chicken.  It was about the size of a full grown human man.  It was covered in feathers and was a close relative to Velociraptor.  By the way, Velociraptor was actually only about 4 feet tall and 6 or so feet long.  Albertavenator is estimate to have been around the same size as Troodon or about 110-120 lbs.  It would have probably been  8 feet long.  Both Troodon and Albertavenator were quite a bit larger than Velociraptor.  Velociraptor lived in Asia while Troodon and Albertavenator lived in North America.

Troodon in the Forest

Velociraptor in the Desert

Velociraptor Fluffed Out for Display

Velociraptor with Young

All of these  3 raptor dinosaurs we have discussed are thought to have had feathers, however, they were non-flying feathers.  There WERE some flying dinosaurs...not Pterosaurs which were flying reptiles.  .   .  but bird-like dinosaurs like Microraptor.  Microraptor had feathers and it could truly fly.  Fairly recent studies on the chemistry of the feather imprints left by Microraptor have shown that it was an iridescent black, like a raven.

   Pteranodon fishing       

This is a Pterosaur, a flying reptile Iit is NOT a flying dinosaur!       

 Microraptor Flying through the Forest

NOTE:  The older drawings I have put on this post are found further up the list on the Free Printable Downloads page....just click the button at the top of my blog.  The most recent drawing, the one of Albertavenator, is found at the bottom of the list.  You click on the title of the drawing and you get a free printable page to print and color.   

On the blog posts page you can click at the bottom on "Older Posts" to see more drawings with information and stories etc.   You scroll down and get the chance to click on "Older Posts" again for even more.  You can do this several times to see all the posts if you are interested.