Outline: a typical theropod
Hesperornithoides
"western bird form"
Type species Hesperornithoides miessleri
- Lived
- 155 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Hartman et al. 2019
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Field notes
About Hesperornithoides
What it was like
Hesperornithoides was a small feathered theropod from the troodontid family, a group of big-eyed, bird-like hunters. It is known from a partial skeleton. It had short arms for its group and probably lived on the ground.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Wyoming. Its bones come from the Morrison Formation, where it lived in the shadow of Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and giant sauropods such as Diplodocus.
How it was found
Hartman and colleagues named it in 2019. The type species is Hesperornithoides miessleri.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: S. Hartman, M. Mortimer, and W. R. Wahl, D. R. Lomax, J. Lippincott, D. M. Lovelace. 2019. A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight. PeerJ 7:e7247