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2013: The year weird dinosaurs got even weirder

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electreel
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birdpaleoarttheropodavialaeavialanhațeg

Description

I have recently found out that Balaur bondoc had been reclassified into Avialae (birds) earlier this year with the new revision of Paraves (Godefroit et al., 2013). I haven't seen any reconstruction of Balaur as an avialan yet, so I took some time off studying to test my new drawing tablet.

So, with a highly reduced manual third finger, robust leg bones and a remarkable sickle-clawed hallux, Balaur bondoc is no longer an extremely aberrant dromeosaurid, but an even more aberrant primitive bird.
There's still no consensus on the purpose of the secondary "sickle claw", wether it was used in predation, climbing or as an extra walking digit, as in therizinosaurs*


Note that this reconstruction is predominantly speculative, based on other primitive avialans, the real Balaur could have been much weirder.

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© 2013 - 2024 electreel
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acepredator
You never thought about 2014 when you considered this bizarre.