The analysis of a 75 million-year-old fossil has revealed the pre existence of a newly discovered species having a small, agile build with big bug-eyes, hooked claws, knife-like teeth, supplemented by a keen sense of smell to hunt with.

A relative of both the Velociraptor and the Utahraptor, it belongs to Saurornitholestes family, which means a 'lizard bird thief.' This prehistoric predator would have been lightly built with long legs and jaws lined with teeth.

Steven Jasinski, University Pennsylvania doctoral student and author of a study of the new species, said in a press release, "This was not a dinosaur you would want to mess with".

Jasinski's findings are based on a fragment of skull discovered in New Mexico's Wilderness more than 15 years ago. Jasinski has named this new species, Saurornitholestes sullivani, to honor his former boss Robert Sullivan, the man who discovered the fossil in 1999.

The careful examination of the skull by Jasinski revealed an unusually large olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that processes smell. This convinced Jasinski that he had discovered an entirely new species, thus refuting the earlier claims. Previously, the paleontologists used to believe that this fossil belonged to another member of the Dromaeosaurid family called Saurornitholestes langstoni.

Jasinski stated that these findings help us show that these dinosaurs to the south are different from those up north. He added that it also helps us learn that many areas that have been skimmed over in the past are more unique than we have thought, and that there are many other new and interesting discoveries still out there left to make.

Jasinski comprehensively details the creature stating that S. sullivani would have been fairly petite, with a height of 3 feet at the hip and 6 feet from nose to tail. But its powerful olfactory bulb made the animal a better predator and scavenger than others who lived then.