Dinosaurs / Cretaceous / Chirostenotes
Chirostenotes
Cretaceous KY-ro-steh-NOH-teez, “slender-handed”
Chirostenotes was an elegant, slender oviraptorosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. Known from the fossil-rich Dinosaur Park Formation, it reached around two to two and a half metres in body length. The hands were exceptionally elongated, bearing narrow, curved claws that were once thought to belong to a predatory dromaeosaur. Combined with a lightly built skull possessing a tall crest and a completely toothless jaw, Chirostenotes had the tools of an opportunistic feeder. It likely snatched small lizards, mammals, and crustaceans from crevices, as well as grazing on fruit, leaves, and seeds. Like other advanced caenagnathids, it was adorned in pennaceous feathers, using its long hind limbs to dash through floodplain forests.
Its long, slender fingers were originally mistaken for those of a mammal or an agile raptor.
Where and when
Chirostenotes lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 76.5 to 74.5 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Canada, in the Dinosaur Park Formation.
The numbers
Length 2.3 m (estimates run from 2 to 2.5 m). Mass about 49 kg. Hip height about 1 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.