Deinonychus
Deinonychus antirrhopus
Deinonychus played a major role in reappraising dinosaurs as active and possibly warm-blooded, with bird-like behaviour.
Image: Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Deinonychus antirrhopus
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (Aptian)
- Lived
- 115–108 Ma (115 million years ago)
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Habitat
- Forest, Plains
- Length (estimate)
- 3.4 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 70 kg
Description
Deinonychus was an agile dromaeosaurid with a large sickle claw on its second toe and long grasping arms. Bony rods stiffened its tail and probably helped with balance. Fossils found alongside those of the herbivore Tenontosaurus indicate interactions, but do not prove that Deinonychus hunted in organised packs. The finds encouraged a new view of dinosaurs as active animals.
Habitat
River woodlands and floodplains of western North America.
Fossil sites
Cloverly Formation, Montana
Cloverly Formation
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Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Deinonychus