Pronunciation: MY
Meaning: Soundly sleeping
Author/s: Norell and Xu (2004)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Liaoning, China
Discovery Chart Position: #552
Mei long
With its legs folded neatly beneath its body and head tucked behind its left wing in a similar roosting position to modern birds, the first fossilized Mei long looked to be soundly sleeping when it passed away and probably never saw death coming. Even as an adult, the Late Cretaceous was a tough time to live, what with climate change, volcanic activity, shifting tectonic plates and bigger, nastier predators lurking in the shadows, so this was probably a blessing in disguise. Furthermore, the name-bearing specimen of Mei was a mere juvenile, apparently separated from its family, and it died alone. Sniff. Who would have thought that Dino-Checking could be so emotional?
Mei was about the size of a duck with large nostrils, many closely packed teeth in the middle portion of its upper jaw, a relatively small skull, a large and robust U-shaped wishbone, and long stilt-like hindlimbs. Its "keep warm" pose adds another 2kg to the argument that dinosaurs, or at least troodontids, were warm-blooded and had to generate and maintain their own body heat, so it's a cruel twist that evidence preserved in the surrounding rock suggests Mei may have been roasted in the feather by a downpour of hot volcanic ash, perhaps after being asphyxiated by poisonous eruption gases. [#]
As horrific as that sounds, it pales in comparison to the alternative scenario, whereby Mei was wide awake, and its final posture was a futile attempt to protect itself from a lava flow.
Mei was about the size of a duck with large nostrils, many closely packed teeth in the middle portion of its upper jaw, a relatively small skull, a large and robust U-shaped wishbone, and long stilt-like hindlimbs. Its "keep warm" pose adds another 2kg to the argument that dinosaurs, or at least troodontids, were warm-blooded and had to generate and maintain their own body heat, so it's a cruel twist that evidence preserved in the surrounding rock suggests Mei may have been roasted in the feather by a downpour of hot volcanic ash, perhaps after being asphyxiated by poisonous eruption gases. [#]
As horrific as that sounds, it pales in comparison to the alternative scenario, whereby Mei was wide awake, and its final posture was a futile attempt to protect itself from a lava flow.
(Soundly-sleeping dragon)Etymology
Mei is a Chinese term meaning "to sleep soundly", and was the joint-shortest dinosaur name (along with the alvarezsaurid known as Kol) until Yi arrived in 2015. The species epithet, long, also Chinese, means "dragon".
Discovery
The first fossils of Mei was discovered in the Yixian Formation, Lujiatun, Shangyuan, Beipiao City, western Liaoning Province, China in layers of volcanic and riverbed sediments. The holotype (IVPP V12733, housed at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology) is a complete articulated skeleton, probably a juvenile (around 53cm long), beautifully preserved in three-dimensional detail. A second specimen of Mei (DNHM D2154), discovered later at Kaoshangtun, was also preserved in a similar "sleeping" position, as was the holotype specimen of Sinornithoides, to whom Mei is closely related, which was found in Mongolia's Ordos Basin way back in 1988.
