054--LIMUSAURUS INEXTRICABLIS

project: DINOSAURIA
specimen 054

LIMUSAURUS INEXTRICABLIS
"Inextricable Mud Lizard"
Xu et al., 2009
Length: 1.7m (5.5ft)
Weight: 34kg (75lb.)
Location: Xinjiang, China
Era: Oxfordian age, upper Jurassic (160 million years ago)

Classification:
Dinosauria
Saurischia
Theropoda
Ceratosauria

Notes:
Despite the fact that Limusaurus is fairly unusual in nearly every facet (small, toothless, herbivorous Ceratosaurs are something of a novelty to put it lightly), its tiny hands are possibly the most well studied part of the animal--it was long believed that the path to three fingers in later theropods was done by the loss of digits four and five, but Limusaurus, fairly basal to theropods, still has four total fingers, and it is its first digit that is the most reduced, indicating that the three digits on later theropods may correspond to digits II, III, and IV, instead of I, II, and III, crippling a long held talking point of those who deny the clear evolutionary link between theropod dinosaurs and birds.