Richardoestesia

Named for Richard Estes (a patronym, not a descriptive translation)

• Richardoestes · Latinised English personal name · Latinised form of Richard Estes, American paleontologist
• -ia · Latin · Latin suffix forming a genus name

Richardoestesia is named in honour of the American paleontologist Richard Estes, who studied fossil reptiles and amphibians, including small vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous of North America. The name is a Latinised version of his name with the Latin suffix "-ia", so it has no descriptive meaning in Greek or Latin. The type species, R. gilmorei, honours Charles W. Gilmore, who earlier described the jaw material.

Named by

Currie, Rigby and Sloan

Year named

1990

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stages

Campanian – Maastrichtian

Found in

Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada (type material); similar teeth reported from other Late Cretaceous North American formations

A small theropod dinosaur known mostly from teeth and jaw fragments. Its exact relationships are uncertain, and some researchers question how well the genus is defined, since much of the referred material is isolated teeth. The type species is R. gilmorei; a second species, R. isosceles, was named later and its assignment is debated.