Deinonychosauria
| Deinonychosauria | ||||||||||||
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Skull of Dromaeosaurus in the Geological Museum in Copenhagen |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Middle Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous ( Bathonian to Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 168.3 to 66 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Deinonychosauria | ||||||||||||
| Colbert & Russell , 1969 |
The Deinonychosauria are a family group ( taxon ) within the theropod dinosaurs (Theropoda). The Dromaeosauridae and the Troodontidae are counted among them. Sister group are the Avialae ( birds and immediate relatives). However, some studies see the troodontids closer to the paraves than to the dromaeosaurs. In this case, the latter would be the only Deinonychosauria family. The American paleontologist Paul Sereno defines them as the common ancestor of Dromaeosaurus albertensis and Troodon formosus and all of their descendants. Kevin Padian , another American paleontologist, sees in the Deinonychosauria all forms that share a younger ancestor with Deinonychus antirrhopus than with the house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ).
All Deinonychosauria have an enlarged "sickle claw" on the second toe. However, this feature also shows the basal Avialae (?) Rahonavis (also assigned to the Dromaeosauridae).
| Theropoda |
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literature
- Thomas R. Holtz Jr. , Halszka Osmólska : Saurischia. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 21-24, doi : 10.1525 / california / 9780520242098.003.0003 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , pp. 128-144, online .