Outline: a typical theropod
Mahakala
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Dromaeosauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Turner et al. 2007
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Mahakala
What it was like
Mahakala was a small feathered dromaeosaur, a relative of Velociraptor. It is known from a partial skeleton. Its simple features suggest that the earliest raptors were small, and that large size evolved later in the group.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. Its bones come from the Djadokhta Formation, a dry land of sand dunes shared with Velociraptor, Protoceratops and the small Halszkaraptor.
How it was found
Turner and colleagues named it in 2007 from one find. Its name comes from a protective figure in Mongolian religious art.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Dromaeosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. H. Turner, D. Pol, and J. A. Clarke, G. M. Erickson, M. A. Norell. 2007. A basal dromaeosaurid and size evolution preceding avian flight. Science 317:1378-1381