“Newly Discovered Raptor Had ‘Switchblade’ Claw for Fighting” by International Business Times Staff Reporter

         

          Talos sampsoni is a recently discovered feathered dinosaur related to the velociraptor.  This new specimen is estimated to have been about 6 feet long and weighed around eighty pounds.  Talos and the velociraptor are both a part of the Troodontid family, a group of dinosaurs closely related to birds.  A new fossil find shows that this dinosaur may have had long hooked talons as well as sharp claws.  This fossil was found in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, where fifteen other species of dinosaurs have been unearthed.  The fossil was discovered by Michael Knell, a doctoral student at Montana University, who was very thrilled to have discovered a new species of dinosaur.

          This article came as exciting news to me.  Dinosaurs have always fascinated me; the mysteries that surround their disappearance and wonderings about what these creatures truly looked like are very interesting to me.  What enthralls me the most is the fact that scientists are still to this day finding new evidence about dinosaurs.  The more they look, the closer they get to unlocking the answers for all the questions we have about dinosaurs.  Hopefully there will be many more fossils found from the Talos sampsoni, and we can continue to learn more about this mysterious extinct creature.