Genus
Valid Extinct

Ceratonykus

Alifanov and Barsbold 2009

Ceratonykus is a monospecific genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur from Mongolia that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in what is now the Barun Goyot Formation. The type and only species, Ceratonykus oculatus, is known from a fragmentary skeleton, including an incomplete skull, of an adult individual. It was named and described in 2009 by Vladimir Alifanov and Rinchen Barsbold. Its describers questioned the traditional placement of alvarezsaurs in Theropoda, instead suggesting they were ornithischians, but this has not been accepted since. Ceratonykus has an estimated length of 75 centimetres and weight of 760 grams. It has been considered as a possible junior synonym of Parvicursor.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
1
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling, solitary Terrestrial
Ceratonykus
click to enlarge
Ceratonykus oculatus, Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Digital. © Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Theropoda Unranked clade
Neotheropoda Unranked clade
Averostra Unranked clade
Tetanurae Unranked clade
Coelurosauria Unranked clade
Alvarezsauria Infraorder
Alvarezsauroidea Unranked clade
Alvarezsauridae Family
Parvicursorinae Subfamily
Ceratonykus Genus
Fossil sites 1 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇲🇳 Mongolia
1
Geological formations
Temporal distribution
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
1
Species (1)
Ceratonykus oculatus 84 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
V. R. Alifanov and R. Barsbold. 2009. Ceratonykus oculatus gen. et sp. nov., a new dinosaur (? Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 43(1):94-106 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
V. R. Alifanov and R. Barsbold. 2009. Ceratonykus oculatus gen. et sp. nov., a new dinosaur (? Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 43(1):94-106 DOI ↗