By Jennifer Dobner
SALT LAKE CITY, May 18 (Reuters) - Scientists have
discovered fossilized bones near Utah's iconic Arches National
Park representing a new species of raptor dinosaur that was
about the size of a coyote, the state's top paleontologist
announced on Friday.
The raptor was among several discovered at or near
Doelling's Bowl Bone Bed, about 230 miles southeast of Salt Lake
City, which has yielded several new species in the last two
decades and is thought to be the base of Utah's Cretaceous
record. Fossils found at the bone bed are estimated at between
120 and 130 million years old.
The new creature, a predator, has been designated as a new
dinosaur genus and species known as Yurgovuchia doellingi, said
Jim Kirkland, state paleontologist for Utah's Geological Survey.
Yurgovuchia is the first new species unearthed in Doelling's
Bowl to be named, although Kirkland said scientists believe as
many as six new species may have been found at the site he
described as "richer than any other place in the U.S."
"All we are finding are new species," he said. "I think
there are places where what we are seeing (is) evolving
The new raptor is believed to be an ancestral relative of
the younger and much larger Utahraptor, based on similarities in
pieces of fossilized vertebrae recovered. In both species, the
bundles of rods that jut out from the vertebrae to form the
raptor's tail are shortened, Kirkland said.
The new dinosaur's name was based on the Ute Indian word for
coyote, "yurgovuch," and for the location where it was found,
itself named after Utah paleontologist Helmut Doelling, whose
geological mapping of the Arches region led to the bone bed's
Raptors, or dromaeosaurs, are a diverse family of predatory
dinosaurs known for their stiff tails and a large, recurved claw
that protruded from the second toe of their hind feet.
Raptors ranged in size from as small as a mockingbird to as
big as a bear, Kirkland said. Some were covered in feathers,
although scientists don't believe they could fly.
Utah paleontologists first came across the Yurgovuchia
specimen in 2005 and excavation began the next year, over time
recovering sections of the vertebrae and a portion of a pelvis.
A scientific paper describing the Yurgovuchia finding, which
is a collaboration between Utah Geological Survey
paleontologists and raptor expert Phil Senter of the University
of North Carolina, was published this week in the journal of
Public Library Science.
Two other sets of bones that also appear to be from new
species were recovered.
One set was found within feet of the Yurgovuchia at
Doelling's Bowl. The third was a broken, but distinctive
skeleton of a long tail, found at a nearby site, Kirkland said.
Both need more study and the Utah Geological Survey plans
additional excavation work. Paleontologists were also working on
the excavation of bones from a long-necked dinosaur that may
represent yet another previously unknown species, he said.
"It's real exciting," Kirkland said.
(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and Todd Eastham)