The small troodontid Sinovenator

We were lucky to receive an already prepared skeleton from the Yixian Formation, lower Cretaceous of China. Some things had to be cleaned and restored, and the owner of this legal specimen was mainly interested in the authenticity and completeness. In the end, this drawing still displays some inconsistencies that definitely fall outside the known anatomy, such as the tail and mainly artificial skull. Still, the trunk and extremities are truly a single original, and almost certainly one of the meanwhile frequently found Sinovenator individuals. Such small and ancient troodontids look even more bird-like than the more derived classical genera such as Troodon.