Hesperonychus
"western claw"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Hesperonychus 1 m (3.3 ft) long
as long as 2 people standing fingertip to fingertip
- Length
- 1 m (3.3 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (76.5–75 Mya)
- Place
- Alberta, Canada
- Food
- Carnivore
- Clade
- Dromaeosauridae Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Coelurosauria Sickle-clawed raptors: Velociraptor, Deinonychus, Utahraptor.
Hesperonychus (meaning “western claw”) is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaur. There is one described species, Hesperonychus elizabethae. The type species was named in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology who collected it as a student in 1982. It is known from fossils recovered from the Dinosaur Park Formation and possibly from the uppermost strata of the Oldman Formation of Alberta, dating to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around .
What we know
- Named by Longrich & Currie, 2009.
- Body length estimated at about 1 m.
- Fossils found in Alberta, Canada.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Hesperonychus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.