Zanabazar

Zanabazar is a genus of troodontid dinosaur, which lived during the Late Cretaceous period in Mongolia.

Fossils of this theropod have been found in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. Originally classified as a new species of the genus Saurornithoides by Rinchen Barsbold in 1974, based on a small specimen thought to be more closely related to S. mongoliensis than to other troodonts, a 2009 review of the genus found that the support for this idea was lacking. Mark Norell and colleagues re-classified the species in the new genus Zanabazar, which they named in honor of Zanabazar, the first spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism in Outer Mongolia.