Dino of the Week: Caihong

Type Species: Caihong juji

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Theropoda – Coelurosauria – Maniraptora – Paraves – Avialae - Anchiornithidae

Time Period: Late Jurassic

Location: China

Diet: Carnivore 

The paravian theropod Caihong lived in Late Jurassic China during the Oxfordian stage. It was closely related to Anchiornis and Aurornis. It was a small dinosaur, only sixteen inches snout-to-tail and weighing just over a pound. Its low and elongated skull resembled that of Velociraptor, and it had a crest on its head. It had recurved teeth that were slender and tightly packed in the front of the jaws but larger and more widely spaced in the back of the jaws. The front teeth didn’t have serrations, but the teeth in the middle of the jaw the teeth were more recurved with serrated edges; at the back, the teeth were short and stout with serrations. Its back vertebrae lacked pluerocoels (hollowed-out air spaces in the bones). Its ulna bone in the forearm was longer in the upper arm, a trait which is generally limited to flying birds, and it had long legs. It was covered in feathers, with only the snout and claws featherless. The body contour feathers were relatively longer than those of non-avian dinosaurs, but none of them were likely pennaceous; it seems to have had pennaceous feathers on its limbs. Scientists studied the melanosomes in the feathers and determined that while Caihong’s body and limbs were a sheen-like black like those of ravens, the neck feathers came in iridescent hues similar to those of modern hummingbirds.