Hagryphus
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Length
- about 3 m (10 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Caenagnathidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Zanno and Sampson 2005
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on the river plains of the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah. Neighbors included Parasaurolophus, Kosmoceratops and Teratophoneus.
Field notes
About Hagryphus
What it was like
Hagryphus was a caenagnathid, a feathered, toothless theropod about 3 meters (10 feet) long. It is known from a hand and part of a foot.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Utah. It comes from the Kaiparowits Formation, where it shared the land with the tyrannosaur Teratophoneus, the horned Kosmoceratops and Utahceratops, and the crested duckbill Parasaurolophus.
How it was found
Zanno and Sampson named Hagryphus in 2005. Its name combines a god of the local native people with the griffin of legend.
Field gallery
More views of Hagryphus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Hagryphus.
The evidence
The science behind Hagryphus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The type specimen is a left hand still joined to the wrist and the end of the forearm, missing only the claw of the second finger. Foot bones, including the end of the second toe, were found with it.
- The fingers are short and sturdy. The first is thick and ends in a strongly curved claw flattened from side to side, the second is the longest, and the third has a smaller claw.
- The foot claws are flattened from side to side and broad at the base.
Borrowed from relatives
- The toothless beak, neck, body and tail are restored after Anzu, without its tall head crest.
- The rest of the foot follows Chirostenotes, and the missing second finger claw follows Apatoraptor, whose second claw is less curved than its first.
- It probably had feathers like Caudipteryx, a feathered oviraptorosaur.
Still unknown
- The shape of its skull and whether it had a crest.
- Whether it is the same animal as Caenagnathus, whose hand is unknown. One study raised the idea but kept the two apart, and a later study also treated them as separate.
- Its feather colors and the foods it ate.
Discovery timeline
- 2005Named itZanno & Sampson
- 2014Close relativeLamanna et al.
- 2020Family treeFunston
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Hagryphus
Named it
Named Hagryphus from a partial hand and foot, extending the known range of these birdlike dinosaurs south into Utah.
A new Oviraptorosaur (Theropoda, Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25: 897-904
Read the paper : A new Oviraptorosaur (Theropoda, Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Utah (opens in a new tab)Close relative
Described Anzu from partial skeletons that reveal much of the body plan of caenagnathids, including toothless jaws and long limbs.
A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America. PLoS ONE 9: e92022
Read the paper : A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America (opens in a new tab)Family tree
Compared caenagnathid bones and growth, separating closely related animals and testing their relationships in the family tree. Hagryphus was kept as a separate animal.
Caenagnathids of the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada: anatomy, osteohistology, taxonomy, and evolution. Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology 8: 105-153
Read the paper : Caenagnathids of the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada: anatomy, osteohistology, taxonomy, and evolution (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Caenagnathidae
Sources: Wikidata