New Bird of Prey Dinosaur Named after Twin Sisters

Geminiraptor suarezarum, meaning “Twin grasper of the Suarezes” is a raptor-like dinosaur named in honor of twin sisters, Drs. Marina and Celina Suarez. They discovered the bones while helping paleontologist James Kirkland with a Utah Geological Survey as graduate students.

It was an incomplete upper jaw that looks like it could be inflated by a large and unique air sack. This identifies the fossil as belonging to a new species of troodontid.

These “raptor-like” dinosaurs are often credited with being more intellectually advanced. This is based on the fact that the troodontid braincase is as much as six times larger than other dinosaurs.

The 7 foot dinosaur is thought to be 125 million years old. Most of the known raptors discovered in North America date to between 72 million and 75 million years ago, which makes the discovery the oldest reported specimen of its kind.

Sources:
Press Release: Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Utah Sets Record with Seven New Species of Dinosaur in 2010
Research article: A New Troodontid Theropod Dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah