UGS scientist Hellmut Doelling honored in naming of Utah’s newest raptor dinosaur; Yurgovuchia doellingi
Utah Geological Survey (UGS) paleontologists have uncovered three new dromaeosaur (“raptor”) dinosaurs near the base of Utah’s Cretaceous fossil record (130-120 million years ago) in eastern Utah on Bureau of Land Management lands near Arches National Park.
The paper describing these new dinosaurs — New dromaeosaurids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah and the evolution of the dromaeosaurid tail — was published today in PLos One (Public Library of Science) as part of a collaboration between UGS paleontologists and Phil Senter, an expert on dromaeosaurs from Fayetteville University in North Carolina.
Dromaeosauridae is a diverse family of predatory (carnivorous) dinosaurs with a plethora of species that have been discovered within the last two decades and a few that were known previously. The three newly discovered species were found at two nearby dinosaur sites: Doelling’s Bowl Bone Bed and Andrew’s Site.
