Atrociraptor marshalli
Atrociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada. The first specimen, a partial skull, was discovered in 1995 by the fossil collector Wayne Marshall in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, about 5 km (3 mi) from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology where it was brought for preparation. In 2004, the specimen became the holotype of the new genus and species Atrociraptor marshalli; the generic name is Latin for "savage robber", and the specific name refers to Marshall. The holotype consists of the premaxillae, a maxilla, the dentaries, associated teeth, and other skull fragments. Isolated teeth from the same formation have since been assigned to Atrociraptor.

IJReid · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- AtrociraptorPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Time the record covers
At most 18 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
6 occurrences of Atrociraptor marshalli on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
6 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
- Horseshoe Canyon Formation · Edmonton Group6
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The named rock units Atrociraptor marshalli has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Atrociraptor marshalli and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Atrociraptor marshalli and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
46 taxa- Albertosaurus sarcophagus3 sites
- Troodon3 sites
- Acipenseridae2 sites
- Albertavenator curriei2 sites
- Ceratopsidae2 sites
- Dromaeosaurinae2 sites
- Richardoestesia gilmorei2 sites
- Albertonykus borealis1 site
- Albertosaurus1 site
- Amiidae1 site
- Ankylosauridae1 site
- Anodontosaurus lambei1 site
- Anura1 site
- Avialae1 site
- Belonostomus1 site
- Borioteiioidea1 site
- Champsosaurus1 site
- Chelydridae1 site
- Coriops1 site
- Crocodylia1 site
- Cyclurus1 site
- Estesesox foxi1 site
- Hadrosauridae1 site
- Holostei1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Atrociraptor marshalli, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Multivariate analyses of small theropod dinosaur teeth and implications for paleoecological turnover through time3
- An unusual microsite from the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta, Canada1
- Faunal assemblages from the upper Horseshoe Canyon Formation, an early Maastrichtian cool-climate assemblage from Alberta, with special reference to the Albertosaurus sarcophagus bonebed1
- A new dromaeosaurid from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada1
Each of the 6 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Atrociraptor marshalli
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- IJReid
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Atrociraptor marshalli was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itAtrociraptor through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Currie and Varricchio 2004