Palaeobiology of non-avian theropod dinosaurs

在艾伯塔省恐龙省公园出土的800多具骨骼中，加拿大收集到的最好的小型兽脚类(蜥鸟盗龙)标本于2014年被发现，目前正在进行研究。该计划与北美西部其他地区正在进行的类似研究相结合，正在形成一幅特定于生态的恐龙群落的图景，在这些群落中，个别类群正在迅速进化。在艾伯塔省，兽脚类动物的进化变化可以通过沿着红鹿河的一系列不同的恐龙动物群来追踪。然而，由于来自亚洲的新形式的移民，理解当地的进化变化是复杂的，我一直在研究几个兽脚亚目动物的可能起源地区。我在亚洲的主要关注点是蒙古的奈米格特组，它大致与恐龙公园组同时代。在这两个地区中的任何一个地区出现任何恐龙家族，都预示着它将在另一个地区找到(正如最近在艾伯塔省发现的阿尔瓦雷萨龙和小恐龙--两个亚洲兽脚类恐龙类群)。

Of more than 800 skeletons excavated in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, the best specimen of a small theropod (Saurornitholestes) ever collected in Canada was found in 2014, and is presently under study. This program is integrated with similar studies in progress in other parts of western North America, and a picture is emerging of ecologically specific dinosaur communities in which individual taxa are rapidly evolving. Within Alberta, evolutionary changes in theropods can be tracked through a succession of different dinosaur faunas along the Red Deer River. Understanding evolutionary change locally is complicated, however, by the immigration of new forms from Asia, and I have been studying probable areas of origin of several theropods. My prime focus in Asia is the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia, which is roughly contemporaneous with the Dinosaur Park Formation. The presence of any dinosaur family in either of the two regions predicts it will be found in the other region (as witnessed by the recent identification in Alberta of alvarezsaurids and microraptorines -- two Asian theropod dinosaur taxa).