Latenivenatrix
"hiding huntress"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- Canada
- Named by
- van der Reest and Currie 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
It lived on a coastal plain crossed by rivers near the Western Interior Seaway. Gorgosaurus, Styracosaurus and Parasaurolophus occur in the Dinosaur Park Formation.
Field notes
About Latenivenatrix
What it was like
Latenivenatrix was a troodontid, a lightly built, feathered theropod with large eyes, long legs and a big brain for its size. It was one of the largest troodontids known and may have been an omnivore, eating small animals as well as plants.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Alberta, Canada. Its bones come from the Dinosaur Park Formation, a rich rock layer shared with the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus, the horned Styracosaurus and the crested duckbill Parasaurolophus.
How it was found
Van der Reest and Currie named Latenivenatrix in 2017, from bones that had long been placed in Troodon. Some scientists think it is the same animal as Stenonychosaurus, so its status is still debated.
Field gallery
More views of Latenivenatrix
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 Latenivenatrix.
The evidence
The science behind Latenivenatrix
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Partial skeletons preserve skull bones, parts of the limbs and a pelvis.
- Some skull roof bones have a triangular outline, a feature used in the original description to distinguish it from Stenonychosaurus.
Borrowed from relatives
- A feathered covering is inferred from relatives such as Anchiornis, whose fossils preserve feathers on the body and limbs.
- Missing parts of its body can be restored by comparison with Stenonychosaurus and other troodontids.
Still unknown
- Whether it was a separate animal or the same species as Stenonychosaurus.
- Its feather colors and pattern.
- How much of its diet consisted of plants rather than small animals.
Discovery timeline
- 2009Close relativeHu et al.
- 2017Named itvan der Reest & Currie
- 2021RedescriptionCullen et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Latenivenatrix
Close relative
Described an Anchiornis skeleton with extensive feathers, supporting feathered restorations of its close relatives.
A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus. Nature 461: 640-643
Read the paper : A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus (opens in a new tab)Named it
Separated bones formerly called Troodon into Latenivenatrix and Stenonychosaurus, using differences in skull, foot and hip bones.
Troodontids (Theropoda) from the Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, with a description of a unique new taxon: implications for deinonychosaur diversity in North America. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 54: 919-935
Read the paper : Troodontids (Theropoda) from the Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, with a description of a unique new taxon: implications for deinonychosaur diversity in North America (opens in a new tab)Redescription
Found overlapping skull shapes and fossil horizons, and proposed that Latenivenatrix was the same species as Stenonychosaurus.
Anatomical, morphometric, and stratigraphic analyses of theropod biodiversity in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation1. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 58: 870-884
Read the paper : Anatomical, morphometric, and stratigraphic analyses of theropod biodiversity in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation1 (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: Wikidata