Troodon Formosus(Stenonychosaurus) 3D Reconstruction

I´m a 3d artist, and i´m modeling a 3d Stenonychosaurus (Troodon), but, i need a bones reference to model it cientificaly. Can you help me? I need of images with quality of bones (all skeleton) of Troodon (Stenonychosaurus). At least top, side and front pictures.

If you can help me with this... please help me! If you know any paleontologis that can help... make contact between us!

I want to animate this realisticly too, based on biomechanicals.

Sorry for my poor english.

Thanks in advance!

Malcolm and Nick, According to Mike Keesey's site (dinosauricon.com) there are 20 skeletons of Troodon known. There is a picture of one of them at that site as well. Sinovenator would not help you. It is a VERY primitive troodont (and in my opinion, it might not be a true troodont at all). So a good starting point would be Pete's picture of a Troodon skeleton on Keesey's site: http://www.dinosauricon.com And perhaps if you got in touch with Pete himself, he perhaps has other photographs as well? Good luck.

Ken Kinman wrote-

I think most of those skeletons are the embryo and hatchling ones described by Horner, Varrichio and other authors. The skeleton represented in those images may not be very accurate and partly modeled after dromaeosaurids and the like. I recently received two images of the skull material and it looks fairly fragmentary.

In this case Ken, I may actually agree with you. However, for very different reasons. I'm willing to go with a redefined Troodontidae that would be a node-based clade, like _Sinornithoides_ + _Troodon_ (or _Saurornithoides_). I think, no wait, I know that someone (Jaime? Mike?) has suggested this on the Dinosaur Mailing List. However, considering the published definitions, I would still consider _Sinovenator_ to be a troodontid. Sure, its primitive, however the paper does discuss the derived states for troodontids which is why I suggested Malcolm should search for the paper.

Nick, I agree that the Sinovenator paper may be helpful in a reconstruction of Troodon, but Sinovenator itself is too primitive to be of much help in reconstructing a Troodon. I personally believe that Sinovenator will be close to dromaeosaurs, and that Troodontidae will be closer to modern birds (perhaps even closer than Confuciornis is). If so, the similarities between Sinovenator and true Troodontidae would be mainly symplesiomorphies, plus a few convergences, and thus making it difficult for scientists who presently don't have enough fossil evidence to say for sure that Sinovenator actually forms a clade with Troodontidae. Cladistics is just a tool, and it you push a tool beyond its limits (especially where fossil evidence is so scarce), you should expect some incorrect conclusions being draw. More Sinovenator material will eventually tell us for sure.

Ken Kinman-

Agreed.

Ken, I must now ask you a few questions as any good researcher should. Please do not take offense. I mean these questions in the most serious and professional way.

1. What aspect(s) of _Sinovenator_'s morphology seems to imply a relationship with dromaeosaurs? (I can think of a couple myself, but I want to hear what you have to say) 2. What aspect(s) of Troodontid morphology seems to imply a relationship with pygostylian (or possibly more derived than pygostylian) birds?

As certain individuals commonly point out, parsimony programs are there to provide a character map and the simplest way (the one that requires the least convergences, etc.) to distribute these characters.

Is such material forthcoming? I know there is more to the _Sinovenator_ holotype than what was shown in the pictures but aside from that, I'm clueless.

Nick Gardner

Btw, if anyone has a copy of the new Nature paper on _Yanornis_, I'd be obliged if you could email it to me in PDF form.

I found the above while searching for _T_ on the Internet. The skeletal presented is actually of _Sinornithoides youngi_. If you are interested in images of the skull, I will be able to send you some that I received from two friends.

I wrote-

Thanks Gen2Rev for sending me this paper. It appears to have be written prior to the publication of the Czerkas FDOF volume. I'm going to reactivate my subscription to NATURE and try to get a looksy at the Supplementary Information. You know, I don't know if the rest of you know this, but often, there is a chalkload of helpful information in the Suppl. I recall one paper featuring detailed images of the feathers of one of the Yixians.

Nicholas Gardner