Genus
Valid Extinct

Hesperonychus

Longrich and Currie 2009

Hesperonychus is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaur. There is one described species, Hesperonychus elizabethae. The type species was named in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology who collected it as a student in 1982. It is known from fossils recovered from the Dinosaur Park Formation and possibly from the uppermost strata of the Oldman Formation of Alberta, dating to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around 75 million years ago.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
4
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling Terrestrial
Hesperonychus
click to enlarge
Pelvis (fused ilia and pubes) of UALVP 48778, holotype of Hesperonychus elizabethae, from the late Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. Fossil collected by Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls. Prepared by Clive Coy. Digital photography by Nick Longrich. Additional digital editing by Nick Longrich. © NickLongrich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
Hesperonychus
Hesperonychus
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Theropoda Unranked clade
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Neotheropoda Unranked clade
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Averostra Unranked clade
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Tetanurae Unranked clade
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Coelurosauria Unranked clade
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Maniraptora Unranked clade
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Paraves Unranked clade
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Deinonychosauria Infraorder
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Dromaeosauridae Family
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Microraptorinae Subfamily
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Hesperonychus Genus
Measurements
Length
1,25 m ⓘ
Hesperonychus elizabethae
1 m ⓘ
Mass
3,6 kg ⓘ
Hesperonychus elizabethae
2 kg ⓘ
Fossil sites 4 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇨🇦 Canada
4
Geological formations
Dinosaur Park
3
Oldman
1
Temporal distribution
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
4
Species (1)
Hesperonychus elizabethae 84 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
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 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
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 DOI ↗