Size: 27.56 in., turkey-sized
Mass: 4-6 lbs
Diet: Coyote-like carnivore
Locality: Liaoning, China
Age: Early Cretaceous 135 million years ago

"Sleeping dragon" (Xu & Norell, 2004)
"may long"

Mei long is famous for having been found fossilised in a sleeping position. Its head was tucked under its arm, with its tail wrapped around the body. It was curled up to keep warm, exactly what other warm-blooded animals do to save heat.

Mei long was only known from the Early Cretaceous deposits of Liaoning, China. It was an early member of the troodontid family — small carnivorous dinosaurs that became very successful, spreading around the world and surviving right up to the K/T boundary.

Troodontids had serrated teeth like most carnivorous dinosaurs, but they had a very unusual and distinctive shape. So while we can imagine that troodontids were carnivorous, we don't know exactly what they ate. Some scientists have suggested that troodontids may have been the coyotes of the dinosaur world.

Mei long is only known from the Early Cretaceous period in China, although the family to which it belongs, the troodontids, became extinct at the very end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago.

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