biology

Talos sampsoni

Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni rather than just read about it. In short: Talos is an extinct genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period (late Campanian, about 76 million years ago) in the geographic area that is now Utah, United States. It is known from a single species, Talos sampsoni.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Talos is an extinct genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period (late Campanian, about 76 million years ago) in the geographic area that is now Utah, United States. It is known from a single species, Talos sampsoni.

Discovery Talos is known only from the holotype specimen UMNH VP 19479, a partial postcranial skeleton of a subadult individual including the hindlimbs, pelvis, vertebral fragments, chevrons and the left ulna. It was discovered and collected in 2008 by M. J. Knell during the Kaiparowits Basin Project, initiated by the University of Utah in 2000, from the Kaiparowits Formation within the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. It was first named by Lindsay E. Zanno, David J. Varricchio, Patrick M. O'Connor, Alan L. Titus, and Michael J. Knell in 2011 and the type species is Talos sampsoni. The generic name comes from Talos, a giant bronze automaton in Greek mythology and is intended to be a pun on the English word talon. The specific name honors television paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson for researching and collecting fossils during the Kaiparowits Basin Project.

Description

Talos is a troodontid, a group of small, bird-like, gracile maniraptorans. All troodontids have many unique features of the skull, such as closely spaced teeth in the lower jaw, and large numbers of teeth. Troodontids have sickle-claws and raptorial hands, and some of the highest non-avian encephalization quotients, meaning they were behaviourally advanced and had keen senses. Talos is approximately 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length, and its weight has been estimated at thirty-eight kilograms. Talos had a sickle claw. That of the specimen was damaged during life, possibly in an attack on prey. In 2011 Talos was assigned to the Troodontidae. A cladistic analysis indicated it formed a clade of derived troodontids together with Byronosaurus, Saurornithoides, Zanabazar and Troodon.

Paleoecology

Habitat The only known specimen of Talos was recovered at the Kaiparowits Formation, in southern Utah. Argon-argon radiometric dating indicates that the Kaiparowits Formation was deposited between 76.1 and 74.0 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. During the Late Cretaceous period, the site of the Kaiparowits Formation was located near the western shore of the Western Interior Seaway, a large inland sea that split North America into two landmasses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. The plateau where dinosaurs lived was an ancient floodplain dominated by large channels and abundant wetland peat swamps, ponds and lakes, and was bordered by highlands. The climate was wet and humid, and supported an abundant and diverse range of organisms. This formation contains one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life in the world.

Paleofauna

Talos shared its paleoenvironment with theropods such as dromaeosaurids, ornithomimids like Ornithomimus velox, tyrannosaurids like Teratophoneus, armored ankylosaurids such as Akainacephalus johnsoni, the duckbilled hadrosaurs Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus and Gryposaurus monumentensis, the ceratopsians Utahceratops gettyi, Nasutoceratops titusi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni and the oviraptorosaurian Hagryphus giganteus. Paleofauna present in the Kaiparowits Formation included chondrichthyans (sharks and rays), frogs, salamanders, turtles, lizards and crocodilians. A variety of early mammals were present including multituberculates, marsupials, and insectivorans.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Talos sampsoni

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni

In research: Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni 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: Talos sampsoni is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Campanian dinosaurs, Dinosaur species, Dinosaurs of the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Talos sampsoni 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Talos sampsoni” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Talos sampsoni in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Talos sampsoni in simple terms?

Why does Talos sampsoni 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 Talos sampsoni?

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 Talos sampsoni.