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BOROGOVIA
(boh-ro-go-ve-ah)
meaning: "named after the borogoves in Lewis Carrol's poem Jabberwocky"
Borogovia
Named By: H. Osmolska in 1987
Time Period: Late Cretaceous, 70 Ma
Location: Mongolia - Nemegt Formation
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains, but roughly estimated to be about 2 meters long
Diet: Carnivore
Fossil(s): Partial hind legs
Classification: | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Saurischia | Theropoda | Troodontidae |
About

Borogovia is a troodontid theropod dinosaur genus which lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, in what is now Mongolia.

In 1971, a Polish-Mongolian expedition discovered the remains of a small theropod at the Altan Ula IV site, in the Nemegt Basin of Omnogovi province. In 1982, the find was reported by Halszka Osmolska and considered by her to be a possible specimen of Saurornithoides. Later she concluded that it represented a species new to science.

In 1987, Osmolska named and described the type species Borogovia gracilicrus. The generic name is derived from the fantasy creatures known as 'borogoves' in the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky", in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The specific name is a combination of Latin gracilis, "lightly built", and crus, "shin", in reference to the elegant build of the lower leg.

The holotype specimen, ZPAL MgD-I/174, was found in the Nemegt Formation, dating from the early Maastrichtian. It consists of two lower legs of a single individual, including fragments of both tibiotarsi, the undersides of both metatarsi and the second, third and fourth toes of each foot.

The tibiotarsi have an estimated length of twenty-eight centimetres. Borogovia is about two meters (6 feet) long, weighing some twenty kilograms (forty-five pounds). The tibiotarsus is very elongated. The third toe is narrow. The second phalanx of the second toe is short. The claw of the second toe is short and relatively flat. Osmolska claimed that the second toe could not be hyperextended, and suggested that it had regained a weight-bearing function, compensating for the weakness of the third toe.

Borogovia was assigned by Osmolska to the Troodontidae in 1987.

Read more about Borogovia at Wikipedia
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