Eudromaeosauria

Eudromaeosaurs
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous – Late Cretaceous, 143–66 Ma Possible Kimmeridgian record
Eudromaeosauria diversity, featuring from top left to lower right: Utahraptor, Deinonychus, Velociraptor and Bambiraptor
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Dromaeosauridae
Clade: †Eudromaeosauria
Longrich & Currie, 2009
Type species
†Dromaeosaurus albertensis
Matthew & Brown, 1922
Subfamilies
  • †Dromaeosaurinae
    Matthew & Brown, 1922
  • †Saurornitholestinae
    Longrich & Currie, 2009
  • †Velociraptorinae
    Barsbold, 1983

For classification of genera, see text

Eudromaeosauria ("true dromaeosaurs") is a subgroup of terrestrial dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. They were small to large-sized predators that flourished during the Cretaceous Period. Eudromaeosaur fossils are known almost exclusively from the northern hemisphere.

They first appeared in the early Cretaceous Period and survived until the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, 66 Ma). The earliest known definitive eudromaeosaur is the probable dromaeosaurine Yurgovuchia, from the Cedar Mountain Formation, dated to 139 million years ago.[1] However, the earlier (143-million-year-old) fossils such as those of Nuthetes and several indeterminate teeth dating to the Kimmeridgian stage may represent eudromaeosaurs.[2][3]

While other dromaeosaurids filled a variety of specialized ecological niches, mainly those of small predators or specialized piscivores, eudromaeosaurs functioned as hypercarnivores and are suggested to have been predators of medium- to large-sized prey. Aside from their generally larger size, eudromaeosaurs are also characterized by several features of the foot.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Yurgovuchia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Sweetman S.C. (2004). "The first record of velociraptorine dinosaurs (Saurischia, Theropoda) from the Wealden (Early Cretaceous, Barremian) of southern England" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 25 (3): 353–364. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2004.01.004.
  3. ^ Van der Lubbe, T.; Richter, U.; Knotschke, N. (2009). "Velociraptorine dromaeosaurid teeth from the Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) of Germany" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 54 (3): 401–408. doi:10.4202/app.2008.0007.