Outline: a typical theropod
Saurornithoides
saw-ROR-nih-THOY-deez
"lizard bird form"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Length
- about 3 m (10 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- Mongolia and China
- Named by
- Osborn 1924
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 Saurornithoides
What it was like
Saurornithoides was a slender, feathered theropod from the troodontid family. It had large eyes, a long narrow snout full of small teeth, and long legs for running. Like its relatives, it probably hunted small animals and may have eaten some plants too.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. Its first bones come from the Djadokhta Formation, a dry land of dunes where Protoceratops, Velociraptor and the armored Pinacosaurus also lived.
How it was found
Osborn named Saurornithoides in 1924. The name refers to its bird-like skull. A second species once placed here is now often treated as a separate genus.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: H. F. Osborn. 1924. Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 144:1-12