第53卷 第1期 古 脊 椎 动 物 学 报 pp. 29-62 2015年1月 VERTEBRATA PALASIATICA fi gs. 1-4 The taxonomic status of the Late Cretaceous dromaeosaurid Linheraptor exquisitus and its implications for dromaeosaurid systematics XU Xing1 Michael PITTMAN2 Corwin SULLIVAN1 Jonah N. CHOINIERE3 TAN Qing-Wei4 James M. CLARK5 Mark A. NORELL6 WANG Shuo1,7 (1 Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100044, China
[email protected]) (2 Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Life and Planetary Evolution Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China) (3 Evolutionary Studies Institute, Centre of Excellence: Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg WITS 2050, South Africa) (4 Long Hao Institute of Geology and Paleontology Hohhot 010010, China) (5 Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University Washington DC 20052, USA) (6 Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History New York 10024, USA) (7 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049, China) Abstract The dromaeosaurid Linheraptor exquisitus was named in 2010 based on a nearly complete skeleton recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation at the Gate Locality, in Bayan Mandahu, western Nei Mongol, China. However, three recent studies regarded L. exquisitus as a subjective junior synonym of Tsaagan mangas, a dromaeosaurid from the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation of the Ukhaa Tolgod locality, Mongolia. Here we refute this synonymy based on 61 morphological features that distinguish L. exquisitus from T. mangas. Many of these features are based on new observations from previously unprepared areas of the L.