Albertavenator

Albertavenator was a gracile troodontid dinosaur that lived in river deltas and coastal forests of present-day Alberta, Canada, during the early Maastrichtian stage. Described in 2017 from a pair of partial frontal skull bones, it had previously been conflated with other contemporary small theropods such as Troodon and Stenonychosaurus. Careful three-dimensional statistical shape analysis demonstrated that its skull cap was shorter, stouter, and possessed a unique pattern of surface ridges. Approximately two metres long and about the weight of a medium-sized dog, Albertavenator was an agile, sharp-eyed hunter. It likely pursued small vertebrates, birds, and insects in the temperate woodland understorey. Its identification demonstrated that troodontid diversity in late Cretaceous North America was higher and more taxonomically partitioned between stratigraphic horizons than palaeontologists had previously assumed.

It was distinguished from other North American troodontids by the distinctively short, rounded proportions of its frontal bones.

Where and when

Albertavenator lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 71.5 to 71 million years ago (Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation.

The numbers

Length 2.3 m (estimates run from 2 to 2.5 m). Mass about 30 kg. Hip height about 0.8 m. That is 1.4 human-lengths, or 0.21 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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