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Dinosaurs » A-Z Dinosaurs List » Saurornitholestes Dinosaur |
| Saurornitholestes |
Saurornitholestes langstoni (Langston's lizard-bird thief) is a
coyote-sized carnivorous dromaeosaurid dinosaur genus from the Upper Cretaceous
(Upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. Several incomplete 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. |
 Like other theropods in the family Dromaeosauridae, Saurornitholestes
had a extended, curving, bladelike claw on the second toe. Saurornitholestes
was more long-legged and flippantly built than other dromaeosaurids such
as Velociraptor and Dromaeosaurus. It resembles Velociraptor in having
large, fanglike teeth in the face of the jaws. Saurornitholestes most
intimately resembles Velociraptor, although the precise relationships
of the Dromaeosauridae are still comparatively poorly understood.
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Saurornitholestes appears to have been the most ordinary small theropod
in dinosaur Provincial Park and teeth and bones are much more ordinary
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 entrenched in the wing bone of the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus.
Whether it in fact killed the pterosaur or merely scavenged an already
dead animal is unknown. |
Similar teeth are established in younger deposits, but whether they stand
for S. langstoni or a different, related species is unknown. |
