Open Paleo

Nedcolbertia

Kirkland et al., 1998 ned-kohl-BER-tee-a

Named in honor of Edwin H. 'Ned' Colbert, the prominent American vertebrate paleontologist

137.1–132.6 million years ago Valanginian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Nedcolbertia is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian-aged) Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah. The type and only described species so far is N. justinhofmanni, known from at least three partial skeletons.

Under dispute

The placement of Nedcolbertia is contested. Originally described as a basal coelurosaur (Kirkland and colleagues, 1998), it was reinterpreted as an ornithomimosaur by Brownstein (2017) and recovered as one by Hartman and colleagues (2019), whereas Cau (2024) recovered it among early-diverging allosauroids. Given the fragmentary holotype and this conflict, it is placed conservatively at Avetheropoda incertae sedis.

Diagnosis

  1. Small, lightly built cursorial theropod with simple pneumatic dorsal vertebrae
  2. Manus with long slender phalanges and deep raptorial first manual ungual with prominent flexor tubercle
  3. Slender second manual ungual indicating differentiated manual unguals
  4. Femur medially bowed with femoral head inclined below greater trochanter
  5. Fourth trochanter well developed on proximal half of femur
  6. Tibia and fibula longer than femur
  7. Metatarsals closely appressed except at distal end with third metatarsal narrowed proximally
  8. Pes unguals long, asymmetrical, triangular in cross-section with ventral pits

Species

Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni Kirkland et al., 1998

Type species

Named for Justin Hofmann, a six-year-old schoolboy from Newton, New Jersey, whose win in a Discover Card contest earned the honor of having a dinosaur named after the winner.

Holotype
CEUM 5071 , College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum
Material
Partial associated skeleton of juvenile including caudal vertebrae fragments, femora, tibia, fibula, calcanea, astragali, metatarsals, phalanges, unguals, humerus distal end.
Horizon
upper Yellow Cat Member, Cedar Mountain Formation, Valanginian, Early Cretaceous , 137.1–132.6 million years ago
Locality
CEUM loc. 42GR 190v, Utah, United States

References

  1. Kirkland, J. I.; Britt, B. B.; Whittle, C. H.; Madsen, S. K.; Burge, D. L. (1998). A small coelurosaurian theropod from the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of eastern Utah. Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems (Lucas, S. G.; Kirkland, J. I.; Estep, J. W., eds.) 14: 239-248.

    Named Nedcolbertia as a basal coelurosaur, without an analysis.

    kirkland1998c
  2. Cau, A. (2024). A Unified Framework for Predatory Dinosaur Macroevolution. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 63(1): 1-19. doi:10.4435/BSPI.2024.08

    Recovered Nedcolbertia among early-diverging allosauroids.

    cau2024a
  3. Hartman, S.; Mortimer, M.; Wahl, W. R.; Lomax, D. R.; Lippincott, J.; Lovelace, D. M. (2019). A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight. PeerJ 7: e7247. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247

    Recovered Nedcolbertia as an ornithomimosaur.

    hartman2019a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Nedcolbertia as a basal ornithomimosaur.

    jones2026c
  5. Brownstein, C. D. (2017). Description of Arundel Clay ornithomimosaur material and a reinterpretation of Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni as an "Ostrich Dinosaur": biogeographic implications. PeerJ 5: e3110. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.3110

    Reinterpreted Nedcolbertia as a basal ornithomimosaur on shared manual and pedal characters, without a phylogenetic analysis.

    brownstein2017a