Paleontologists have unearthed a never-before-seen raptor-like dinosaur that lived during a period of extreme climate change around 100 million years ago. Researchers think the newfound species, named after the two-faced Roman god Janus, could be an evolutionary "missing link" between two key dinosaur groups.
The newly described species, Iani smithi, belongs to the clade Ornithopoda — an extinct group of nonavian, mostly bipedal dinosaurs with several birdlike features. It is unclear exactly how large this species was, but it likely grew to around 10 feet (3 meters) long. One of the standout features of I. smithi is its powerful jaw, which hints that the species exclusively ate plants.
