User:A Cynical Idealist/sandbox3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eudromaeosauria ("true dromaeosaurs") is a subgroup of terrestrial dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. They were small to large-sized, feathered hypercarnivores (with diets consisting almost entirely of other terrestrial vertebrates) that flourished in the Cretaceous Period.
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Eudromaeosaurs | |||||||||
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Eudromaeosauria diversity, featuring from top left to lower right: Utahraptor, Deinonychus, Velociraptor and Bambiraptor | |||||||||
Scientific classification | |||||||||
Domain: | Eukaryota | ||||||||
Kingdom: | Animalia | ||||||||
Phylum: | Chordata | ||||||||
Clade: | Dinosauria | ||||||||
Clade: | Saurischia | ||||||||
Clade: | Theropoda | ||||||||
Family: | †Dromaeosauridae | ||||||||
Clade: | †Eudromaeosauria Longrich & Currie, 2009 | ||||||||
Type species | |||||||||
†Dromaeosaurus albertensis Matthew & Brown, 1922 | |||||||||
Subgroups | |||||||||
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Eudromaeosaur fossils are known almost exclusively from the northern hemisphere. They first appeared in the early Cretaceous Period (early Aptian stage, about 124 million years ago) and survived until the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, 66 Ma). The earliest known definitive eudromaeosaur is the probable dromaeosaurine Yurgovuchia, from the Cedar Mountain Formation, dated to 139 million years ago.[1] However, the earlier (143-million-year-old) fossils such as those of Nuthetes destructor and several indeterminate teeth dating to the Kimmeridgian stage may represent eudromaeosaurs.[2][3]
While other dromaeosaurids filled a variety of specialized ecological niches, mainly those of small predators or larger fish-eating forms, eudromaeosaurs functioned as large-bodied predators of often medium- to large-sized prey. Aside from their generally larger size, eudromaeosaurs are characterized by several features of the foot.