Outline: a typical theropod
Archaeornithoides
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Elzanowski and Wellnhofer 1992
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Archaeornithoides
What it was like
Archaeornithoides is known from part of a skull and jaws of a very young animal, only a few inches long. It was a small theropod, perhaps a troodontid, but the young age of the fossil makes it hard to place.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia. It comes from the Djadokhta Formation, a sandy land shared with Velociraptor, Protoceratops and the oviraptorid Citipati.
How it was found
Elzanowski and Wellnhofer named Archaeornithoides in 1992.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. Elzanowski and P. Wellnhofer. 1992. A new link between theropods and birds from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 359:821-823