| Eudromaeosaurians Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Eudromaeosauria diversity, featuring from top left to lower right: Utahraptor, Deinonychus, Velociraptor and Bambiraptor | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Dromaeosauridae |
| Clade: | †Eudromaeosauria Longrich & Currie, 2009 |
| Subgroups | |
Eudromaeosauria ("true dromaeosaurs") is a subgroup of terrestrial dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. They were small to large-sized, feathered hypercarnivores (with diets consisting almost entirely of other terrestrial vertebrates) that flourished in the Cretaceous Period.
Eudromaeosaur fossils are known almost exclusively from the northern hemisphere. They first appeared during the Early Cretaceous and survived until the end of the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, 66 million years ago). The earliest known definitive eudromaeosaur is the large dromaeosaurine Utahraptor ostrommaysi, from the Yellow Cat Member of Cedar Mountain Formation, dated between the Berriasian and Hauterivian stage of the Early Cretaceous.[1] The Berriasian taxon Nuthetes destructor and several indeterminate teeth dating to the Kimmeridgian stage may represent eudromaeosaurs.[2][3]
- ^ Joeckel, R. M.; Ludvigson, G.; Moeller, A.; Hotton, C. L.; Suarez, M. B.; Suarez, C. A.; Sames, B.; Kirkland, J. I.; Hendrix, B. (2019). "Chronostratigraphy and Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology of Berriasian–Hauterivian Strata of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA". Geological Society of London, Special Publications. 498: 75–100. doi:10.1144/SP498-2018-133. S2CID 210296827.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.