NAME

Meaning - Sinornithoides means “Chinese bird form”
Pronounced - sy-NOR-nith-OY-deez
Named By - D. A. Russell and Dong Zhiming
When Named - 1994
DIET

Omnivore (it ate meat and plants, including mammals, smaller dinosaurs, insects, and some plant material)
SIZE

Length - 3.6 ft (1.1 m) long
Height - 18 inches (45 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - 12 pounds (5.5 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED

Middle Cretaceous period, about 110 to 100 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the Ordos Basin, Inner Mongolia, China, Asia.
FOSSILS

An almost complete fossil was found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Tetanura - advanced theropods with three fingers
  • Infraorder Coelurosauria - lightly-built fast-running predators with hollow bones and large brains
  • Family Troodontidae - intelligent predators with large eyes
  • Genus Sinornithoides
  • Species S. youngi (type species named by D. A. Russell & Dong, 1994)
INTERESTING FACTS

This turkey-sized dinosaur had very long legs and was a fast runner. Sinornithoides was a very intelligent dinosaur (it had a relatively big brain).