Saurornitholestes
| Saurornitholestes Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Possible Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary record
| |
|---|---|
| Skeletal reconstruction of S. langstoni | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Dromaeosauridae |
| Clade: | †Eudromaeosauria |
| Subfamily: | †Saurornitholestinae |
| Genus: | †Saurornitholestes Sues, 1978 |
| Type species | |
| †Saurornitholestes langstoni Sues, 1978
| |
| Other species | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Saurornitholestes ("lizard-bird thief") is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and the United States (Montana, New Mexico, Alabama, and South Carolina). Two species have been named that are regarded as valid: Saurornitholestes langstoni in 1978 and Saurornitholestes sullivani in 2015. Saurornitholestes was a small, bipedal, meat-eating dinosaur, equipped with a sickle-like claw on each foot.
Saurornitholestes robustus, a species named in 2006, was regarded as a dubious troodontid in 2014 and tentatively assigned to the genus Xenovenator in 2026.