24 year old Michael Pittman, a student at University College London, along with an American colleague, has recently made a discovery of a new species of dinosaur with scythe-like claws on each foot which may have been used to tear through flesh; it is believed to be a distant relative to the notorious hunter velociraptor.

The remarkably well preserved Linheraptor is the first almost complete skeleton of its type to be found in the Gobi desert in China since 1972.

Just like the Linheraptor it had a large curved to claw on each foot which may have been used to tear through flesh.

Reports said that the 55lb dinosaur, which lived 75 million years ago, would have been lively and speedy on its feet.

The pair came across the beautiful fossil at a site of red sandstone rocks in Inner Mongolia where a number of other dinosaurs have been discovered earlier and is known for well preserved and uncrushed fossils

"I've always wanted to discover a dinosaur since I was a kid, and I've never given up on the idea. It was amazing that my first discovery was from a Velociraptor relative", Mr. Pittman said.

Professor Xu Xing, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, China, said, "This is a really beautiful fossil and it documents a transitional stage in dromaeosaurid evolution".

The discovery has been explained in the journal Zootaxa.