Anzu
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: Caenagnathidae
Subfamily: Caenagnathinae
Genus: Anzu
Type Species: Anzu wyliei meaning "Wylie's feathered Demon."
Described by Matthew C. Lamanna, Hans-Dieter Sues, Emma R. Schachner, and Tyler R. Lyson, 2014.
Common Names: Chicken from Hell.
Current Park Population: (21; all adults; 7 male, 14 female)
Park Diet: Fruits, ferns, mulberry leaves, mealworms, crickets, eggs, thawed mice, thawed rats, and ratite pellets
Natural Diet: ferns, conifers, fruit, insects, small animals, and eggs of other dinosaurs.
Lifespan: 24 years
Habitat: Open Floodplain, Open Canopy Forests, and Conifer Forests.
Native Ecosystem: Western North America, on what was then an island continent known as Laramidia. Hell Creek Formation, Montana, and South Dakota, USA, 67.2- 66 Million Years Ago, Campanian-Maastrichtian Stage.
Breeding Season: May-July
Gestation Period: One-Two months
Eggs Laid: 12-30 eggs
Hatching Time: Two-Four weeks
Danger Level: 6 out of 10.
Summary: It was named one of the "Top 10 New Species" for new species discovered in 2014 by the International Institute for Species Exploration in 2015.
History of Discovery: Several large skeletons from the late Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of Montana and South Dakota were initially referred to as "cf. Chirostenotes", though more recent studies concluded that they represent new species.
In 1998 Fred Nuss of Nuss Fossils discovered the site containing the holotype, CM 78000. The first two partial skeletons of Anzu were discovered in 1998 by Fred Nuss Fossils on a private South Dakota ranch. The two specimens weren't buried together – the skeletons rested about 330 feet apart with the second individual in a rock layer about 11 feet below the first – but, once prepared by the commercial outfit Triebold Paleontology, it was clear that both represented the same dinosaur. Both were mostly disarticulated and appeared to have been transported by a water current. A third referred specimen, fragmentary skeleton MRF 319, studied by Tyler Lyson of the National Museum of Natural History, was discovered by Scott Haire, who spotted the bones at his uncle's ranch in Marmarth, North Dakota. A rear lower jaw fragment, FMNH PR 2296, was also referred to.
These four fossils found at Hell Creek together make up a fairly complete skeleton of Anzu wyliei, comprising about 75 to 80 percent of the whole skeleton. Three researchers, Emma Schachner of the University of Utah, Matthew Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Tyler Lyson of the Smithsonian in Washington realized in 2006 that they each had partial skeletons of the same species and began collaborating to study it, assisted by Hans-Dieter Sues, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The main fossils are being held at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The genus is notable as the first well-preserved example of a North American oviraptorosaur. According to Sues, "For almost a hundred years, the presence of oviraptorosaurs in North America was only known from a few bits of skeleton, and the details of their appearance and biology remained a mystery. With the discovery of A. wyliei, we finally have the fossil evidence to show what this species looked like and how it is related to other dinosaurs."
The creature's appearance – "big crests on their skulls, a beak, no teeth, and a very bird-like skeleton" – and its discovery in the Hell Creek Formation led to it being jokingly nicknamed the "chicken from hell". Matthew Lamanna, who devised the species' name, originally wanted to use a Latin or Greek version of "chicken from hell". However, he found that this nickname does not translate well in those languages, so he eventually settled on evoking and using the name of the bird-like daemon Anzu from the mythology of ancient Sumer, which itself roughly translates to "heavenly eagle". The specific name, wyliei, honors Wylie J. Tuttle, the grandson of one of the museum's donors, Lee B. Foster.
A couple of doodle illustrations of Ed hugging an Anzu and Luna Loud freaking out because the Anzus look like large chickens.
Description: Anzu wyliei is characterized by a toothless beak, a prominent crest, long arms ending in slender, relatively straight claws, long powerful legs with slender toes, and a relatively short tail. Anzu measured about 3.5 - 3.75 meters (11.5 - 12.3 ft) long, up to 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) tall at the hips and 200–300 kilograms (440–660 lb) in body mass, and was among the largest North American oviraptorosaurs.
When the type specimen of Anzu was described, several autapomorphies (derived traits unique to a genus) were established. There is a high crescent-like crest on the skull, formed by the upper branches of the praemaxillae. The occipital condyle is wider than the foramen magnum. The front part of the lower jaw, which is fused with its counterpart, has a prominent flange on its outer side. The retroarticular process, a prominent projection at the rear of the lower jaw, is elongated, about as long as the jaw joint surface. The lower end of the radius is divided into two rounded processes. The first phalanx of the second finger has a trough along the lower edge of its inner side. The front side of the astragalus (ankle bone) has a tubercle at the base of its ascending process.
Sid drew a comparison sketch with Anzu, a chicken, and a Southern Cassowary to illustrate the similarities of the living dinosaurs, yes birds like chickens and cassowaries are dinosaurs, to the Oviraptorid Anzu.
An additional four possible autapomorphies were identified in the referred specimens. The main body of the maxilla has no depression around the antorbital fenestra. The nasal branch of the maxilla is elongated and constructed like an inverted L. The branch of the jugal towards the quadratojugal is vertically deep. The same branch is forked at its rear end.
Males were covered with black feathers with some iridescent blue on the top of their bodies, the nuchal cape was bright yellow with blue edges, the wings were green blue, dark blue, and black tip, the tail feathers were black, dark red-purple with white spot centers, green blue, dark blue, and black tip, the head and neck mane were a green blue color, the throat gular sac was red with the inner region being dark blue, the cheeks were golden yellow, and the crest was red-tipped, followed by yellow and light blue.
Females are light brown with black spots, the wings, and tail feathers were light brown, tan, and black-tipped, they had scaly gray legs, a gray beak, and crest, a dark brown gray nuchal cape, a small pink gular throat sac, a pale yellow cheek, a black eye ring around the eye and white patch surrounding it.
Chicks are covered in tannish brown downy fluff with dark brown and black spots over their bodies.
Classification: Anzu was placed in the Oviraptorosauria, as a member of the Caenagnathidae. It had been expected that oviraptorosaurs would be found in North America, as well as the documented specimens in Asia, as the two continents had a land connection during the Cretaceous, but the discovery of Anzu wyliei indicates that North American oviraptorosaurs were related more closely to each other than to their counterparts in Asia.
Diet: Anzu were mostly omnivores feeding on plants like leaves and fruit, insects, small animals, and eggs of other dinosaurs. If given the chance, they often eat the infertile eggs mostly left by Leptoceratops. There have been rare cases of Anzu killing and eating small predators from Didelphodon, Acheroraptor, Dromaeosaurus, and Pectinodon.
Reproduction: They live in social flocks numbering from 12 to 36 individuals, this is mostly a strategy of safety numbers as they must deal with large predators. During the breeding season, Male Anzus form leks in a clearing like most birds do today, they put on a courtship display which involved head bobs, wings spreading, tail shaking, honking, rumbling, stomping, jumping, and inflating with their large throat gular sacs showing their colorful feathers and throat sacs to show their health and status to the females, the female decides to choose which male to mate with mostly going after the males that are larger and brighter colors. Squabbles do happen between males which involve fights with kicks and clawing over lekking spots and males can be very aggressive.
Soon the Anzus would establish nesting colonies in a dry clearing, digging nest holes and laying about 12 to 30 blue-green eggs. Oviraptorids actually took care of their eggs instead of stealing the eggs of other dinosaurs, Males often guard and brood the eggs sitting on them. Males and females often take turns whether one of them needs to eat or drink and time of day with Males incubating the eggs at night and females incubating the eggs during the day. The colony will join forces and become defensive when they spot the egg thieves of other animals, large herbivores passing by, and even large predators.
Sometimes Anzu pairs who didn't lay any eggs, lose their previous clutch, or a same-gender couple would steal eggs from their neighbors to raise them as their own or take in orphaned abandoned eggs.
The sketch shows Double D, Bloo, and Eddy fleeing with Anzu eggs they want to eat or incubate on Double D's end while being chased by the Colony.
Paleobiology: Anzu was probably an omnivore or herbivore, although the beak is not as heavily constructed as in the Asian Oviraptoridae. Other differences from its Asian cousins include size – the Asian Oviraptoridae was smaller – as well as thicker legs and different lower jaws.
The fossils of Anzu wyliei were found in mudstone rock that had once been part of ancient floodplains. This indicates that the species likely had a lifestyle significantly different from its Asian counterparts, which lived in arid or semi-arid conditions. Its lifestyle, according to Stephen Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, was that of "a fast-running, ecological generalist that didn't quite fit the usual molds of the meat-eating or plant-eating dinosaur." Its jaw morphology suggests that it could eat a variety of food items, including vegetation, small animals, and possibly eggs.
While a number of its features were similar to those of modern birds, it was not an avian dinosaur and its line died out in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, along with all the rest of the non-avian dinosaurs. Its bird-like features are instead an example of convergent evolution. Matthew Lamanna comments that "it would have had a lot of birdy behaviors. When people think of a dinosaur, they think of something like a T. rex or a brontosaurus, and when they think of a bird, they think of something like a sparrow or a chicken. This animal, Anzu, has a mosaic of features of both of those groups and so it basically provides a really nice link in the evolutionary chain."
The purpose of Anzu's large crest is unclear; Sues notes that it "is very large and made of paper-thin bone, so it was not able to take much stress. All oviraptorosaurs have this crest but it is certainly the largest in A. wyliei. The most likely function is for display, showing off to members of your own species. The Australian cassowary has a similar crest which is thought to be used to attract mates, so it is possible that A. wyliei could have used its crest in a similar fashion." The fossils showed evidence of injuries, including a healed broken rib and an arthritic toe that was probably the result of a tendon being ripped away from the bone (an avulsion fracture). It is not known whether this indicates that the animals fought each other, or were injured by predators.
Interactions with other species: Anzu do prey on small animals, but some like the Didelphoodn can fight back with their sharp teeth.
They feed alongside the other herbivores and small dinosaurs, Leptoceratops, Thescelosaurus, Trierarchuncus, Pachycephalosaurus, Ornithomimus, Triceratops, Torosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Alamosaurus, and Ankylosaurus. Anzus feed alongside the Thescelosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Ornithomimus on the bugs disturbed by the large herbivores and keeping an eye out for predators, although all of these dinosaurs are very wary and won't let the Anzu try and steal their eggs.
Trierarchuncus is a potential prey to Anzu although the oviraptor has to be quick to catch them.
Anzu forms a symbiotic relationship with Leptoceratops, Anzu provides a lookout for the Leptoceratops for predators, feeding on the bugs disturbed by the Leptoceratops feet or when digging a new burrow, and Leptoceratops with their sense of smell alert the Anzu of predators, and they would leave infertile eggs that didn't hatch for the Anzus to feed on.
Anzus sometimes snack on the eggs of predators which in turn they become prey to Acheroraptor, Pectinodon, Dromaeosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus. Anzu can fight back kicking with their legs, pecking from their sharp beaks, and slashing with their claws against Pectinodon, Dromaeosaurus, Acheroraptor, and juvenile Tyrannosaurs, and in some cases eat their dead attackers.
Extinction: Despite Anzu being the jack of all trades of dinosaurs due to its omnivorous diet, unfortunately like all other dinosaurs wouldn't survive the K-PG Mass extinction event and would have been one of the last oviraptorids ever to live.
Danger Tip: Anzus can be dangerous like a cassowary, they have sharp beaks to peck at your face, three-fingered claws to slash your sides, and powerful kicks from the sharp three toes of their legs at your chest that could even kill you.
One little detail, Oviraptorids like Anzu males can be very aggressive during the breeding season in leks.
Significant Events: The Rescue team encounters a flock of female Anzus on the Third day of their First Mission, they follow them to a clearing with males in a lek doing a courtship display to the females. Ed loves chickens, especially dinosaur-looking ones, Luna Loud not so much. Eddy blared an air horn at the males causing them to charge into the portal with the females in pursuit. They resume their mating displays in one of the Hell Creek Paddocks at Paleo Park.
Hell Creek Paddock: The Anzus live in a paddock with open canopy trees, fruit trees, and bushes, a river bank shore for them to drink and possibly bathe in, and three dirt clearings each for dust bathing, to perform their leks, and building their nests.
Conclusion: Anzu is an example of how dinosaurs were quite diverse and their similarities with modern-day birds help us understand the evolution of dinosaurs and birds. The Anzus are the first oviraptorids to be brought back to the present and they make a great and comical addition to Paleo Park.
The Field Guide might take a long time, like structuring and writing descriptions of the creatures, but also my time in college and spending time with my family. So you can suggest additional information quotes, descriptions, and natural or speculative behaviors for the prehistoric animals that I can edit and you send your suggestions either in reviews or Private Messages.
Examples: Inferring what the toons are doodling on the sketches or snarking quotes.
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