Nemegtomaia

Nemegtomaia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
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Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Clade:	†Oviraptorosauria
Family:	†Oviraptoridae
Subfamily:	†Oviraptorinae
Genus:	†Nemegtomaia
Species:	† N. barsboldi
Binomial name
Nemegtomaia barsboldi (Lü et al., 2004) [originally Nemegtia, preoccupied]

Nemegtomaia ("Nemegt mother") is a genus of oviraptorid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. The type species, Nemegtomaia barsboldi, was described by Lü, Tomida, Azuma, Dong, and Lee in 2004.^[1] Lü et al. originally called the dinosaur Nemegtia, a name which was found to have already been used for an ostracod from the same formation (in the Nemegt Basin). The dinosaur was therefore renamed Nemegtomaia in 2005.^[2]

Skeletal diagrams showing the remains of the three known specimens in gray

Eggs

Nemegtomaia is known from relatively good remains and a notably well-preserved skull. The same authors had identified this skull in 2002, as a species of "Ingenia" (now Ajancingenia).^[3] Despite this early misidentification, Nemegtomaia belongs to the subfamily Oviraptorinae, not Ingeniinae and may be a close relative of Citipati. Two further specimens were described in 2012. One of these was found associated with a nest with eggs, and this specimen also showed evidence of having been scavenged upon by Skin beetles.^[4]

Classification

The cladogram below follows an analysis by Fanti et al., 2012.^[4]

Oviraptoridae	Oviraptor unnamed Rinchenia Citipati unnamed Khaan unnamed Conchoraptor unnamed Machairasaurus unnamed "Ingenia" (=Ajancingenia) unnamed Nemegtomaia Heyuannia

See also

• Timeline of oviraptorosaur research

References

1. Lü, J., Tomida, Y., Azuma, Y., Dong, Z. & Lee, Y.-N. (2004). "New oviraptorid dinosaur (Dinosauria: Oviraptorosauria) from the Nemegt Formation of southwestern Mongolia." Bulletin of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, Series C 30: 95-130.
2. Lü, J., Tomida, Y., Azuma, Y., Dong, Z. & Lee, Y.-N. (2005). "Nemegtomaia gen. nov., a replacement name for the oviraptorosaurian dinosaur Nemegtia Lü et al., 2004, a preoccupied name." Bulletin of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, Series C 31: 51.
3. Lü, J., Dong, Z., Azuma, Y., Barsbold, R. & Tomida, Y. (2002). "Oviraptorosaurs compared to birds." In Zhou, Z. & Zhang, F. (eds). Proceedings of the 5th Symposium of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Science Press (Beijing), pp. 175-189.
4. Fanti F, Currie PJ, Badamgarav D (2012). "New Specimens of Nemegtomaia from the Baruungoyot and Nemegt Formations (Late Cretaceous) of Mongolia." PLoS ONE, 7(2): e31330. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031330

External links

• http://www.thescelosaurus.com/oviraptorosauria.htm
• http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/02/luis-rey-and-new-oviraptorosaur.html