Hesperonychus

western claw

• hesperos · Greek · western (evening, west)
• onyx · Greek · claw

Hesperonychus means "western claw". It combines the Greek "hesperos" (western) with "onyx" (claw). The name refers to its discovery in western North America and to the large sickle-like claw on the second toe, a feature of many small theropods. It was one of the smallest known predatory dinosaurs in North America.

Named by

Longrich and Currie

Year named

2009

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Campanian

Found in

Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada

A small microraptorine dromaeosaurid (or possibly caenagnathid-like in earlier interpretations). The fossils were first collected in the 1982 and described in 1923 as Chirostenotes? by Sternberg before being reassigned. The type species is Hesperonychus elizabethae.