Pronunciation: AH-dah-SOR-us
Meaning: Ada lizard
Author/s: Barsbold (1977)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Bügin Tsav, Mongolia
Discovery Chart Position: #297
Adasaurus mongoliensis
Adasaurus is a dromaeosaurid, one of the predatory dinosaurs affectionately known as "raptors", whose brief mention in 1977 after its discovery by a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition in Ulaanbaatar was followed by an equally brief description by Rinchen Barsbold six years later. In just a few paragraphs, Barsbold described Adasaurus as having a high and relatively large skull and a clawed end bone of each second toe typical of dromaeosaurids. But they were unusually small, especially when compared to the sickle-shaped talons of Dromaeosaurus, and not much bigger than its other toe bones.
For many years, Adasaurus was pegged as a member of Dromaeosaurinae, a subfamily that includes the heaviest members of Dromaeosauridae. But at just 35kg in weight and under two meters in length, it was dwarfed by its purported closest relatives, Achillobator and Utahraptor. In 2012, Turner et al. performed an overhaul of dinosaurs from the birdward branch of the theropod family tree and recovered Adasaurus as a member of Velociraptorinae: a group of modestly sized dromaeosaurids that includes Velociraptor and all coelurosaurs more closely related to it than they are to Dromaeosaurus.
For many years, Adasaurus was pegged as a member of Dromaeosaurinae, a subfamily that includes the heaviest members of Dromaeosauridae. But at just 35kg in weight and under two meters in length, it was dwarfed by its purported closest relatives, Achillobator and Utahraptor. In 2012, Turner et al. performed an overhaul of dinosaurs from the birdward branch of the theropod family tree and recovered Adasaurus as a member of Velociraptorinae: a group of modestly sized dromaeosaurids that includes Velociraptor and all coelurosaurs more closely related to it than they are to Dromaeosaurus.
(Evil Spirit Lizard from Mongolia)Etymology
Adasaurus is derived from "Ada" (an evil spirit in Mongolian mythology) and the Greek "sauros" (Lizard).
The species epithet, mongoliensis, means "from Mongolia" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of Adasaurus were discovered at Bügin-Tsav ("The Flaming Cliffs") in the Nemegt Formation, Bayankhongor Province, southwestern Mongolia.These include IGM 100/20 (the holotype) which is a partial skull and bits of skeleton including two hip bones, and IGM 100/21 (the paratype) which is a partial leg and complete foot. Two specimens that were thought to be from the same locality, IGM 100/22 and IGM 100/23, were referred to Adasaurus by Currie and Varricchio in 2004, but they actually hail from the Shine Us Khuduk and Tel Ulan Chaltsai localities, and may represent a different dinosaur entirely.
Funnily enough, the holotypes of Adasaurus and Conchoraptor, which were both named and described by Barsbold (in 1983 and 1986 respectively), share the same catalogue number (IGM 100/20).
