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''Saurornitholestes'' ("lizard-bird thief") is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Montana and New Mexico. Two species have been named: ''Saurornitholestes langstoni'' in 1978 and ''Saurornitholestes sullivani'' in 2015. ''Saurornitholestes'' was a small bipedal meat-eating dinosaur, equipped with a sickle-claw on the foot. ==Discovery and naming== In 1974 Canadian amateur paleontologist Irene Vanderloh discovered the skeleton of a small theropod near Steveville in Alberta . She showed it to John Storer of the Provincial Museum of Alberta, who brought it to the attention of Hans-Dieter Sues. In 1978 Sues named and described the specimen as the type species ''Saurornitholestes langstoni''. The generic name is in reference to the Saurornithoididae, due to the resemblance with this group that is today seen as part of the Troodontidae, and combines their name with a Greek ''lestes'', "thief". The specific name honours Wann Langston, Jr. The holotype specimen, RTMP 74.10.5, was uncovered in a layer of the Dinosaur Park Formation dating to the late Campanian. It consists of a very fragmentary skeleton including teeth, skull elements, two vertebrae, ribs, tail elements and a hand. Also three paratypes were assigned: CMN 12343, CMN 12354, and UA 5283, all frontals.〔H.-D. Sues, 1978, "A new small theropod dinosaur from the Judith River Formation (Campanian) of Alberta Canada", ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' 62: 381-400〕 Two more complete and larger partial skeletons (RTMP 88.121.39 and MOR 660), dozens of isolated bones, and scores of teeth are today known from the badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta; most of these are housed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, in Drumheller, Alberta and remain undescribed. The Alberta and Montana remains are usually attributed to the single species ''Saurornitholestes langstoni'', though they come from a variety of rock formations indicating a wide span of time; for example, the Oldman Formation (dated to about 77 million years ago〔) and the upper Two Medicine Formation (about 72 million years ago). Similar teeth are found in younger deposits, dated to around 70 to 69 million years ago,〔"3.33 Alaska, United States; 3. Prince Creek Formation," in Weishampel ''et al''. (2004). Page 587.〕 but whether they represent ''S. langstoni'' or a different, related species is unknown. Neonate-sized ''Saurornitholestes'' fossils have been reported in the scientific literature.〔 ''Saurornitholestes sullvani'' is known from the Hunter Wash fauna of the Kirtland Formation in New Mexico, based on the frontal SMP VP-1270. It differs from ''S. langstoni'' in the characters of the frontal.〔Steven E. Jasinski (2015) A new dromaeosaurid (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of New Mexico. in Sullivan, R.M. and Lucas, S.G., eds. Fossil Record 4. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 67: 79-88〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saurornitholestes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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