| Saurornitholestes Fossil range: Late Cretaceous | |
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Saurornitholestes ("lizard-bird thief") is a genus of coyote-sized carnivorous dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Upper Campanian stage) of Alberta, Canada. Several partial skeletons, dozens of isolated bones, and scores of teeth are known from the badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta; most of these are housed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, in Drumheller, Alberta.
Saurornitholestes, a saurornitholestine.
Like other theropods in the family Dromaeosauridae, Saurornitholestes had a long, curving, blade-like claw on the second toe. Saurornitholestes was more long-legged and lightly built than other dromaeosaurids such as Velociraptor and Dromaeosaurus. It resembles Velociraptor in having large, fanglike teeth in the front of the jaws. Saurornitholestes most closely resembles Velociraptor, although the precise relationships of the Dromaeosauridae are still relatively poorly understood.
Saurornitholestes appears to have been the most common small theropod in Dinosaur Provincial Park, and teeth and bones are much more common than those of its more massive contemporary, Dromaeosaurus. Little is known about what it ate and how it lived, but a tooth of Saurornitholestes has been found embedded in the wing bone of a large pterosaur, probably a juvenile Quetzalcoatlus.[1] Because the pterosaur was so much larger than Saurornitholestes, Currie and Jacobsen suggest that the theropod was probably scavenging the remains of an already dead animal.[1]
Similar teeth are found in younger deposits, but whether they represent S. langstoni or a different, related species is unknown.
Discovery and naming[]
In 1974 Canadian amateur paleontologist Irene Vanderloh discovered the skeleton of a small theropod near Steveville in Alberta . She showed it to John Storer of the Provincial Museum of Alberta, who brought it to the attention of Hans-Dieter Sues. In 1978 Sues named and described the specimen as the type species Saurornitholestes langstoni. The generic name is in reference to the Saurornithoididae, due to the resemblance with this group that is today seen as part of the Troodontidae, and combines their name with a Greek lestes, "thief". The specific name honours Wann Langston, Jr.
The holotype specimen, RTMP 74.10.5, was uncovered in a layer of the Dinosaur Park Formation dating to the late Campanian. It consists of a very fragmentary skeleton including teeth, skull elements, two vertebrae, ribs, tail elements and a hand. Also three paratypes were assigned: CMN 12343, CMN 12354, and UA 5283, all frontals.
Two more complete and larger partial skeletons (RTMP 88.121.39 and MOR 660), dozens of isolated bones, and scores of teeth are today known from the badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta; most of these are housed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, in Drumheller, Alberta and remain undescribed. The Alberta and Montana remains are usually attributed to the single species Saurornitholestes langstoni, though they come from a variety of rock formations indicating a wide span of time; for example, the Oldman Formation (dated to about 77 million years ago) and the upper Two Medicine Formation (about 72 million years ago). Similar teeth are found in younger deposits, dated to around 70 to 69 million years ago, but whether they represent S. langstoni or a different, related species is unknown. Neonate-sized Saurornitholestes fossils have been reported in the scientific literature.
In 2006 Robert Sullivan named and described a second species, Saurornitholestes robustus, based on holotype SMP VP-1955, a left frontal. The specific name refers to the great thickness of this bone, the only trait in which the species is known to differ from S. langstoni. The holotype and additional remains referred to S. robustus, were found in the Willow Wash fauna of the Kirtland Formation in New Mexico, dated to about 73 million years ago. Possible indeterminate fossils are known from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and South Dakota, dated to about 66 million years ago.
Description[]
Like other theropods in the Dromaeosauridae, Saurornitholestes had a long, curving, blade-like claw on the second toe. Saurornitholestes was more long-legged and lightly built than other dromaeosaurids such as Velociraptor and Dromaeosaurus. It resembles Velociraptor in having large, fanglike teeth in the front of the jaws. Saurornitholestes most closely resembles Velociraptor, although the precise relationships of the Dromaeosauridae are still relatively poorly understood.
Saurornitholestes was about 1.8 meters (6 feet) long and weighed approximately 10 kilograms (30 pounds). At the hip it stood 0.6 meters (2 feet), or around as tall as the length of a terrier.
Classification[]
In 1978 Sues assigned Saurornitholestes to the Dromaeosauridae. Later studies most often found it a member of the dromaeosaurid Velociraptorinae, but a cladistic analysis by Philip J. Currie in 2009 recovered a position in a more basal dromaeosaurid clade that was named the Saurornitholestinae.
The cladogram below is the result of a 2019 analysis by Philip J. Currie and David C. Evans. Currie and Evans recovered Saurornitholestes as the sister taxon of Atrociraptor.
| Eudromaeosauria |
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Paleobiology[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ^ a b Currie, Philip J.; Jacobsen, Aase Roland (1995). "An azhdarchid pterosaur eaten by a velociraptorine theropod" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 32: 922–925. Archived from the original on 2006-05-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20060528174158/http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/faculty/philip_currie/uploads/pdfs/1995/1995Azhdarchidae.pdf.
- Sullivan, R.M. (2006). "Saurornitholestes robustus, n. sp. (Theropoda:Dromaeosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous Kirtland Formation (De-Na-Zin member_), San Juan Basin, New Mexico." NMMNH Bulletin 35: 253-256.