In the journal Zootaxa, a team led by Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reports, Xixianykus zhangi describes a pint-sized, two-legged sprinter from about 85 million years ago. The study says the fossil’s legs, hips and backbone adds to growing evidence that the dinosaur’s "parvicursorine" kindred, "represent extreme cursors (runners) among non-avian dinosaurs."
Corwin Sullivan, also of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a statement, "The limb proportions of Xixianykus are among the most extreme ever recorded for a theropod dinosaur. This doesn’t provide a basis for estimating its top speed, but it does show that Xixianykus was a highly efficient runner."
Science Fair reports that running would definitely have been a good skill. Xixianykus lived in the era of Tyrannosaurus Rex and kin, a bad time to be small and slow.
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