An article published in the journal “Science of Nature” reports the identification of a new species of dinosaur with characteristics similar to birds that lived about 90 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, in today’s Patagonia, Argentina. A team of researchers led by Matias Motta named it Overoraptor chimentoi, a name that reminds more of predatory dinosaurs than birds. In fact, some of its characteristics are typical of that type of dinosaur, with legs suitable for running and a claw similar to that of Velociraptor on its second toe. Instead, its arms have characteristics much closer to bird wings, and this suggests that it’s one of the species closest to birds among the various known raptors.

An article published in the journal “PeerJ” reports the discovery of two species of horned dinosaurs that lived about 75 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, in today’s New Mexico, USA. Dr. Denver W. Fowler and Dr. Elizabeth A. Freedman Fowler examined fragments of skulls discovered in the Kirtland Formation, New Mexico, and attributed them to two hitherto unknown species of herbivorous dinosaurs from the ceratopsid family naming them Navajoceratops sullivani and Terminocavus sealeyi. According to the two researchers, these are transitional species between two previously known species: Pentaceratops sternbergii and Anchiceratops ornatus. This could also be true for a third possible species that appears to belong to the same group even if researchers haven’t identified it with certainty due to the fragmentary nature of the fossils discovered.

An article published in the journal “Cretaceous Research” reports the identification of a new species of tyrannosaurid that lived in today’s Canada about 80 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period. A team of researchers named it Thanatotheristes degrootorum after examining a partial skull with the bones of the upper and lower jaws, discovered in 2010 near the city of Hays. The characteristics of the available fossils convinced the researchers that it was a tyrannosaurid of a different species from the ones already known, the oldest discovered in Canada, useful to understand the evolution of the family to which the iconic T. rex belongs.