Dromaeosaurus

Dromaeosaurus is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, sometime between 80 and 69 million years ago, in the Canadian province of Alberta and the western United States. The type species is Dromaeosaurus albertensis, which was described by William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922. Its fossils were unearthed in the Hell Creek Formation, Horseshoe Canyon Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation. Teeth attributed to this genus have been found in the Prince Creek Formation. Dromaeosaurus is the type genus of both Dromaeosauridae and Dromaeosaurinae, which include many genera with similar characteristics to Dromaeosaurus such as possibly its closest relative Dakotaraptor. Dromaeosaurus was heavily built, more so than other dromaeosaurids that are similar in size, like Velociraptor.

Dromaeosaurus

shankar s. · CC BY 2.0 · 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
DromaeosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Length
2 mWikidata
Mass
15 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 21 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 110.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 48 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 47 of 48 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 48 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences97–96 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences91–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–77 Mya — about 4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 4 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 4 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 4 occurrences70–68 Mya — about 4 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences93.9 Mya72.2 Mya111 Mya65.1 Mya

48 occurrences of Dromaeosaurus 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

48 occurrences

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

14 formations

Dinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.52°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.40°WDinosaur Park — 50.81°N, 111.63°WDinosaur Park — 50.60°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 49.12°N, 110.47°WDinosaur Park — 50.68°N, 108.09°WOldman — 49.08°N, 110.68°WOldman — 49.19°N, 110.73°WOldman — 50.47°N, 110.39°WOldman — 50.82°N, 111.58°WOldman — 50.75°N, 111.51°WOldman — 50.83°N, 111.32°WOldman — 49.28°N, 112.20°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WJudith River — 46.42°N, 109.27°WJudith River — 46.44°N, 109.83°WPrince Creek — 69.83°N, 151.52°WPrince Creek — 70.07°N, 151.58°WPrince Creek — 70.09°N, 151.54°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.61°N, 106.90°WHell Creek — 45.66°N, 105.08°WHell Creek — 45.50°N, 103.10°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WLance — 41.57°N, 108.67°WUdurchukan — 49.08°N, 130.86°EDenver — 39.84°N, 105.04°WNanushuk — 69.15°N, 153.25°WFrenchman — 49.52°N, 108.82°WKhodzhakul — 40.10°N, 65.80°EForemost — 49.48°N, 111.37°WLaramie — 40.95°N, 104.92°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dromaeosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dromaeosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Dromaeosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

412 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 48 sites for Dromaeosaurus, 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

23 references

Each of the 48 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. 11 further references are not listed. 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 content3

Picture of Dromaeosaurus

Credit
shankar s.
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dromaeosaurus albertensis · ualvp:55333

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itDromaeosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Matthew and Brown 1922