biology

Nedcolbertia

Nedcolbertia is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nedcolbertia rather than just read about it. In short: 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.

Key takeaways

Nedcolbertia belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nedcolbertia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nedcolbertia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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.

Discovery and naming Three skeletons of a theropod were discovered in 1993 by Christopher Whittle near Cisco in the basal Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, dating to the Valanginian. These were subsequently studied and reported in 1995 by Kirkland, Britt, Madsen and Burge. Though in 1996 it had been announced that the taxon would be named "Nedcolbertia whittlei", in 1998 it was actually described and named by Kirkland, Whittle, Britt, Madsen and Burge as the type species Nedcolbertia justinhofmanni. The generic name honours the American palaeontologist Edwin Harris Colbert, known as "Ned" to his friends. The specific name honoured Justin Hofmann, a six-year-old school boy from Newton, New Jersey, a participant of a contest for children by Discover Card, the winner having a dinosaur named after him.

Description

The holotype, CEUM 5071, is one of the specimens, a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It belonged to a juvenile individual. The paratypes are the other two specimens: CEUM 5072 and CEUM 5073, both fragmentary skeletons again lacking the skull. They represent subadult individuals. All three specimens were disarticulated and heavily eroded, having been exposed at the surface before discovery. They are part of the collection of the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum. The holotype of Nedcolbertia had a length of about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in). The paratypes, though not yet full-grown, were about 3 metres (9.8 ft). Due to the condition of the remains, information on the species is limited. The vertebrae were not heavily pneumatised. The thumb claw was much larger than the second claw of the hand. The pubic bone carried a large "foot" with a very small or absent anterior process but a large posterior process. The thigh bone had a lesser trochanter that was clearly lower than the greater trochanter; the fourth trochanter was well-developed. The foot was not arctometatarsal. An enlarged second foot claw was lacking. The describers assigned Nedcolbertia with certainty to the Tetanurae and provisionally to the Coelurosauria. A 2016 overview of ornithomimosaur material from the Arundel Formation of Maryland found Nedcolbertia to be an ornithomimosaur based on comparisons with the Arundel ornithomimosaur remains, Harpymimus, and Nqwebasaurus. In 2024, Cau suggested that Nedcolbertia possibly belongs to Allosauroidea, but included this taxon within Megalosauroidea in his phylogenetic analysis instead.

References

Further reading Kirkland, J. I. Biogeography of Western North America's Mid-Cretaceous Dinosaur Faunas: Losing European Ties and the First Great Asian-North American Interchange. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 16(3), 45A (1996).

External links Media related to Nedcolbertia at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nedcolbertia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nedcolbertia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nedcolbertia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nedcolbertia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nedcolbertia

In research: Nedcolbertia appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nedcolbertia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nedcolbertia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cedar Mountain Formation, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nedcolbertia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nedcolbertia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nedcolbertia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nedcolbertia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nedcolbertia in simple terms?

Why does Nedcolbertia matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nedcolbertia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nedcolbertia.