Ricardoestesia

Ricardo Estes's (thing)

• Ricardo · Spanish/Latin · Ricardo (a given name)
• Estesia · Latin (Latinised surname) · of Estes — honouring palaeontologist Richard C. 'Ricardo' Estes

The genus is named in honour of the American vertebrate palaeontologist Richard C. Estes (1930–1990), who was affectionately known as "Ricardo." The name was coined by Currie, Rigby, and Sloan in 1990, shortly after Estes's death, as a tribute to his extensive contributions to the study of Mesozoic vertebrates. The Latinised ending "-ia" follows standard nomenclatural practice for names honouring a person. The fossil material — slender, ziphodont (blade-like, serrated) teeth — was among the types of specimens Estes himself had studied in detail.

Named by

Currie, Rigby and Sloan

Year named

1990

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stages

Campanian – Maastrichtian

Found in

Dinosaur Park Formation and Lance/Hell Creek formations, Alberta (Canada) and Montana/Wyoming (USA)

Ricardoestesia is a small, poorly known theropod dinosaur known primarily from isolated teeth and fragmentary jaw material. It is characterised by distinctive slender, strongly serrated (ziphodont) teeth. Its exact phylogenetic placement within Theropoda remains uncertain; it has been variously suggested to be a troodontid or a more basal coelurosaur. The type species is R. gilmorei. A second species, R. isosceles, has also been described. Because so little skeletal material is known, the genus is sometimes considered a nomen dubium by some researchers, though it remains in common use.