Dromaeosaurus
- Name meaning: Running Lizard
- Length: 1.8-2 m (6-7 ft)
- Weight: 40-60 kg
- Height: 60-80 cm (23-31 in)
- time period: 73.65-66 mya
- Habitat: North America
- speed: 40+ mph
Dromaeosaurus ("running lizard") was a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous period (middle late Campanian), sometime between 76.5 and 74.8 million years ago, in the western United States and Alberta, Canada. The type species is Dromaeosaurus albertensis, which was described by William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922.
Dromaeosaurus was a small carnivore, about 2 m (6.6 ft) in length and 15 kg (33 lb) in weight. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth, and it had a sharply curved "sickle claw" on each foot. It lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, however, some fragmentary remains such as teeth which may belong to this genus have been found from the late Maastrichtian age Lance and Hell Creek Formations, dating to 66 million years ago.
Dromaeosaurus had a relatively robust skull with a deep snout. Its teeth were rather large and it had only nine of them in each maxilla. Dromaeosaurus also had a vein at the back of the head, the vena capitis dorsalis, that drained the front neck muscles through two long canals running to the posterior surface of the brain
Dromaeosaurus differs from most of its relatives in having a short, massive skull, a deep mandible, and robust teeth. The teeth tend to be more heavily worn than those of its relative Saurornitholestes, suggesting that its jaws were used for crushing and tearing rather than simply slicing through flesh. Therrien et al. (2005) estimated that Dromaeosaurus had a bite nearly three times as powerful as that of Velociraptor and suggested it relied more on its jaws than on the sickle claw to kill its prey. The discovery of the sister species Dakotaraptor, which has a smaller flexor tubercle than most other dromaeosaurs, also supports the suggestion that Dromaeosaurus would have used its sickle claw less than other dromaeosaurids.
Dromaeosaurus was a small carnivore, about 2 m (6.6 ft) in length and 15 kg (33 lb) in weight. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth, and it had a sharply curved "sickle claw" on each foot. It lived during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, however, some fragmentary remains such as teeth which may belong to this genus have been found from the late Maastrichtian age Lance and Hell Creek Formations, dating to 66 million years ago.
Dromaeosaurus had a relatively robust skull with a deep snout. Its teeth were rather large and it had only nine of them in each maxilla. Dromaeosaurus also had a vein at the back of the head, the vena capitis dorsalis, that drained the front neck muscles through two long canals running to the posterior surface of the brain
Dromaeosaurus differs from most of its relatives in having a short, massive skull, a deep mandible, and robust teeth. The teeth tend to be more heavily worn than those of its relative Saurornitholestes, suggesting that its jaws were used for crushing and tearing rather than simply slicing through flesh. Therrien et al. (2005) estimated that Dromaeosaurus had a bite nearly three times as powerful as that of Velociraptor and suggested it relied more on its jaws than on the sickle claw to kill its prey. The discovery of the sister species Dakotaraptor, which has a smaller flexor tubercle than most other dromaeosaurs, also supports the suggestion that Dromaeosaurus would have used its sickle claw less than other dromaeosaurids.