Mei long
| Mei Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
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Fossil
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| Genus: | Mei
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| Species: | M. long
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| Binomial name | |
| Mei long Xu & Norell, 2004
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Mei (from Chinese 寐 mèi soundly sleeping) is a genus of duck-sized troodontid dinosaur first unearthed by paleontologists in Liaoning, China in 2004. Mei lived during the Early Cretaceous Period. Its binomial name, Mei long (Chinese 寐 mèi and 龙 lóng) means dragon, soundly sleeping.
Some of the fossils unearthed from the site, preserved in three-dimensional detail, were found with their faces nestled behind one of their forelimbs, similar to the sleeping position of modern birds. The fossil provides a behavioral link between birds and dinosaurs.[1] Mei has the shortest genus name of any dinosaur, surpassing the previous record-holders Minmi, an ankylosaur discovered in Australia, and Khaan, an oviraptorid from Mongolia.
In popular culture
Mei long was featured in the third episode of the ITV series Prehistoric Park, where five Mei longs attacked Ben, looking for the food in Ben's backpack. and are then found dead near a volcano, several are in the position they were found in the fossils.
References
- ^ Xu and Norell, (2004). "A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture." Nature, 431: 838-841.
