[D] Troodon [sG]
Describer
Leidy, 1856
Time
Cretaceous Late Cenomanian Turonian Coniacian Santonian Campanian Maastrichtian
Classification
Saurischia Theropoda Tetanurae Coelurosauria Maniraptora Troodontidae
Diet
Carnivore
Fossilsite
Canada Mexico US Tadzhikistan Uzbekistan
Typespecies
Troodon formosus
Length
2 meter
Info
Genus - Skull - Eggs
Troodon (Leidy, 1856) > Troodon formosus (Leidy, 1856) >> Polyodontosaurus grandis (Gilmore, 1932) Stenonychosaurus inequalis (Sternberg, 1932) Pectinodon bakkeri (Carpenter, 1982)
Troodon > Troodon asiamercanus (Nessov, 1995) >> Pectinodon asiamericanus (Nessov, 1985)
Troodon > Troodon isfarensis (Nessov, 1995)
Named in 1856 from a small, sharp tooth, the turkey-sized troodon (\\\"wounding tooth\\\") was at first believed to resemblance one of the lateral denticles of the great extinct shark, Carcharodon angustidens...\\\" Nopcsa (1901) and Hay (1902) reclassified Leidy\\\'s \\\"lacertian\\\" genus as a \\\"megalosaurid\\\" dinosaur. Gilmore (1924), however, interpreted the premaxillary teeth of the pachycephalosaur Stegoceras as generically indistinguishable from Leidy\\\'s type tooth, and claimed Troodon was the valid name for the dome-headed ornithopod. C.M. Sternberg (1945) rejected Gilmore\\\'s proposed synonymy and showed that Troodon teeth had characters \\\"typical of the maxillary and dentary teeth of carnivorous dinosaurs.\\\"
Troodon\\\'s tooth was not matched with bones until the 1980s. The bones showed that this dinosaur had been a sharp eyed, bird-like theropod with a bigger brain for its body size than almost any other dinosaur. Its hands couls grasp, and they possessed large, sharp, hook-like claws. Its extremely long slim legs ended in elongated feet with three weight-bearing toes, the second toe armed with a deep, curved claw a bit like that of Deinonychus.
Despite the simmilarity, some scientist believe that troodon and Deinonychus were not closely related. Scientist suspect that Troodon\\\'s anatomy made this theropod a deadly hunter of small mammals that ventured out to feed at dusk. Most dinosaurs had eyes on the sides of their heads, but Troodon\\\'s large eyes faced partly forwards, more like ours. This would probably had given it binocular vision, making this predator particularly good at focusing upon small, swiftly moving animals no bigger than rats.