Mini Dinosaur Bones Has 'Super Nose' for Killing Prey; Raptor Found in New Mexico Related to Velociraptors

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A new species of mini dinosaur found in New Mexico used a "super nose" to hunt its prey; the mini-killing machine was related to the infamous Velociraptor.

The newly identified dinosaur is officially named Saurornitholestes sullivani which means "lizard bird thief" and it walked in the shores of North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, according to International Business Times. It belonged to a group of carnivorous dinosaurs, dromaeosauridae, to which the Velociraptors belonged as well.

S. sullivani measured only six feet but its highlighted feature is the function of its olfactory bulb, the part of the brain responsible for processing odors.

"This keen olfaction may have made S. sullivani an intimidating predator," said Steven Jasinski of Penn's Department of Earth and Environmental Science via Penn News. "Although it was not large, this was not a dinosaur you would want to mess with."

S. sullivani was found by paleontologist Robert Sullivan in 1999 and was thought to be from the Saurornitholestes langstoni specimens but was made its own species when Jasinski found its unique skull and super nose feature, according to Voice of America.

"While the animal's skull is not fully intact, we have portions of the top of the skull," said Jasinski via Motherboard. "The key point is that the portions we do have of the top of the animal's skull possessed important and distinct features, or characteristics, that distinguish it from other known dinosaurs, particularly other known dinosaurs that belong to the family Dromaeosauridae, or the raptors," he added.

Jasinski based his findings on the structure of the dinosaur's skull.

"While we don't have the brain preserved," he said, "one can get an idea of the shape and size of the brain by the cavity present on the inside of the skull, and we have the bones that help us determine some of that."

According to the statement, in the previous studies related to the species, S. sullivani was also fast and agile.

"A keen sense of smell can help make an animal a better predator and scavenger," Jasinski shared. "It seems this dinosaur could have used its sense of smell for scavenging or predation, but since if it was also a pack hunter, which is believed to be characteristic of this group of dinosaurs, its senses would have probably been used to track and hunt prey, making it an excellent and deadly predator."

Jasinski's findings were featured in the latest issue of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin. The research was sponsored by the grant from the Jurassic Foundation.