Genus
Valid Extinct

Stenonychosaurus

Sternberg 1932

Stenonychosaurus is a disputed genus of troodontid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada, as well as possibly the Two Medicine Formation. The type and only species, S. inequalis, was named by Charles Mortram Sternberg in 1932, based on a foot, fragments of a hand, and some caudal vertebrae from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. S. inequalis was reassigned in 1987 by Phil Currie to the genus Troodon, which was reverted by the recognition of Stenonychosaurus as a separate genus from the possibly dubious Troodon in 2017 by Evans et al. and also later in the same year by Van der Reest and Currie.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
14
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore, omnivore Ground dwelling Terrestrial
Stenonychosaurus
click to enlarge
Skeletal reconstruction of Stenonychosaurus, based on all known material, with missing parts of the skull and vertebral column based on Saurornithoides.[1] This version is modified from a version which was itself modified with red colour to show the known parts of the new genus Talos. © Scott Hartman[2] · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia
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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Troodontidae Family
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Troodontinae Subfamily
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Troodontini Tribe
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Stenonychosaurus Genus
Fossil sites 14 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇨🇦 Canada
12
🇺🇸 United States
2
Geological formations
Oldman
6
Dinosaur Park
6
Lance
2
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
2
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
12
Species (1)
Stenonychosaurus inequalis 84 Ma
Images 2
Bibliography
Original description
C. M. Sternberg. 1932. Two new theropod dinosaurs from the Belly River Formation of Alberta. Canadian Field-Naturalist 46(5):99-105 DOI ↗
Bibliography (6)
A. J. van der Reest and P. J. Currie. 2017. Troodontids (Theropoda) from the Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, with a description of a unique new taxon: implications for deinonychosaur diversity in North America . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 54:919-935 DOI ↗
P. J. Currie. 2005. History of research. Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press, Bloomington
P. J. Currie. 1985. Cranial anatomy of Stenonychosaurus inequalis (Saurischia, Theropoda) and its bearing on the origin of birds. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22(11):1643-1658 DOI ↗
K. Carpenter. 1982. Baby dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Lance and Hell Creek formations and a description of a new species of theropod. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming 20(2):123-134
J. S. McIntosh. 1981. Annotated catalogue of the dinosaurs (Reptilia, Archosauria) in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 18:1-67 DOI ↗
C. M. Sternberg. 1932. Two new theropod dinosaurs from the Belly River Formation of Alberta. Canadian Field-Naturalist 46(5):99-105 DOI ↗