Bambiraptor

Bambiraptor Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 72 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Restored skeleton of the juvenile specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Family:	†Dromaeosauridae
Clade:	†Eudromaeosauria
Subfamily:	†Saurornitholestinae
Genus:	†Bambiraptor Burnham et al., 2000
Type species
†Bambiraptor feinbergi Burnham et al., 2000

Bambiraptor is a Late Cretaceous, 72-million-year-old, bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur described by scientists at the University of Kansas, Yale University, and the University of New Orleans.

The holotype fossil is less than one meter long, although this specimen appears to be a juvenile, and it is possible that Bambiraptor is really just a juvenile Saurornitholestes. Because of its small size, it was named Bambiraptor feinbergi, after the familiar Disney movie character and the surname of the wealthy family who bought and lent the specimen to the new Graves Museum of Natural History in Florida.

The Bambiraptor skeleton was discovered in 1993 by 14-year-old fossil hunter Wes Linster, who was looking for dinosaur bones with his parents near Glacier National Park in Montana, United States. Linster told Time Magazine that he uncovered the skeleton on a tall hill and was amazed at his discovery. "I bolted down the hill to get my mom because I knew I shouldn't be messing with it", he said. The bones that Linster discovered on that hilltop led to the excavation of a skeleton that was approximately 95 percent complete. Because of its completeness Florida Paleontology Institute Director Martin Shugar compared it to the 'Rosetta Stone' that enabled archaeologists to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. Yale paleontologist John Ostrom, who reintroduced the theory of bird evolution from dinosaurs after his 1964 discovery of Deinonychus in Wyoming, agreed, calling the specimen a "jewel", and telling reporters that the completeness and undistorted qualities of the bones should help scientists further understand the dinosaur-bird link.