Sense of smell made new dinosaur a fierce predator

A new species of dinosaur closely related to the Velociraptor, a group of creatures depicted in the movie Jurassic Park, has been identified of possessing a keen sense of smell that would have made it a formidable predator.

The species was discovered while investigating a specimen originally assigned to a previously known species. The analysis suggests that part of the dinosaur's skull in fact represents a brand new species, which was named Saurornitholestes sullivani.

The surface of the skull corresponding with the brain's olfactory bulb was unusually large, which implies a powerful sense of smell.

"This feature means that Saurornitholestes sullivani had a relatively better sense of smell than other dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, including Velociraptor, Dromaeosaurus, and Bambiraptor," said Steven Jasinski, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, who has named the new species.

"This keen olfaction may have made S. sullivani an intimidating predator as well," Jasinski noted.

The specimen, roughly 75 million years old, was discovered by paleontologist Robert Sullivan in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness Area of New Mexico in 1999. Initially, scientists believed it was a member of Saurornitholestes langstoni, a species of theropod dinosaurs in the Dromaeosauridae family that had been found in present-day Alberta, Canada.

But when Jasinski began a comparative analysis of the specimen to other S. langstoni specimens, he found subtle differences.

The species would have been agile and fast, perhaps hunting in packs and using its acute sense of smell to track down prey. Though a distinct species, S. sullivani appears to be closely related to S. langstoni.

Finding the two as distinct species further shows that differences existed between dinosaurs between the northern and southern parts of North America.

At less than three feet at its hip and roughly six feet in length, S. sullivani was not a large dinosaur.

"Although it was not large, this was not a dinosaur you would want to mess with," Jasinski pointed out.

The findings were reported in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin.