Outline: a typical theropod
Hesperonychus
"western claw"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 1 m (3 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Dromaeosauridae
- Found in
- Canada
- Named by
- Longrich and Currie 2009
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Hesperonychus
What it was like
Hesperonychus was a tiny feathered hunter, about 1 meter (3 feet) long and probably no heavier than a chicken. It was a close relative of Microraptor. It is one of the smallest meat-eating dinosaurs known from North America, and it probably hunted insects, lizards and small mammals.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada. Its bones come from the Dinosaur Park Formation, where it lived alongside Troodon, the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus and plant eaters such as Corythosaurus and Chasmosaurus.
How it was found
Longrich and Currie named it in 2009. It is known from hip bones and several toe claws.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Dromaeosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: N. R. Longrich and P. J. Currie. 2009. A microraptorine (Dinosauria–Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences