Dinosaur skeleton is new species

A British student has helped discover a new species of dinosaur with scythe-like claws that is distantly-related to the notorious velociraptor made famous in the Jurassic Park films.

Michael Pittman and an American colleague stumbled on the near-complete fossil skeleton of linheraptor exquisitus during a field trip to Inner Mongolia.

The eight-foot long creature is related to the ferocious hunter velociraptor and like its famous cousin linheraptor had a large curved toe claw on each foot which may have been used to tear through flesh.

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The 55lb dinosaur, which lived 75 million years ago, would have been agile and swift on its feet.

Student Mr Pittman, from University College London, and Jonah Choiniere from George Washington University stumbled across the bones sticking out of a cliff face.

The pair were visiting the Wulansuhai Formation, in Inner Mongolia where linheraptor's closest relative, the tsaagan mangas, was discovered in 1993.

Linheraptor is the fifth dromaeosaurid to be unearthed from the Wulansuhai Formation which has become famous for well-preserved

specimens.

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