Russian paleontologists at St.
Petersburg State Universitysaid Thursday that they have discovered a new species of fast-running dinosaursbelieved to have lived in Siberia at least 100 million years ago.A single specimen of theKiyacursor longipeswas found in the Kiya River of the coal-producing Kemerovo region.
The dinosaur belongs to a genus of carnivorous ceratosaursthought to have lived in the Late Jurassic Period around 153-148 million years ago.This dinosaur is the first ceratosaur found in the sediments of the Cretaceous period [145-100.5 million years ago] in Asia, while it was previously believed they went extinct in this area 40 million years earlier, scientists said.Kiyacursor longipes belongs to a family of noasaurids, which the Russian paleontologists described as small, graceful and fast-running ceratosaurs.The name Kiyacursor means runner from the banks of the Kiya River, while longipes means long-legged.The dinosaur was able to run fast thanks to its long hind limbs, which are similar to those of modern-day ostriches, according to the scientists.The study describing the Kiyacursor longipes was firstpublishedon Wednesday in The Royal Society of Londons flagship biological research journal.