Pectinodon

Pectinodon was a small predatory troodontid dinosaur from the latest Maastrichtian stage of North America, living between 68 and 66 million years ago. Roughly two metres in length and weighing around twenty-five kilograms, it was a swift, bird-like carnivore that inhabited floodplains alongside giants like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. Originally named by Kenneth Carpenter based on distinct comb-like serrated teeth, it was long lumped into the wastebasket taxon Troodon before being reinstated by subsequent morphological studies. While known predominantly from teeth and isolated skeletal elements, its anatomy reflects that of a slender, intelligent hunter equipped with stereoscopic vision and a sickle claw on each hind foot. Pectinodon was among the final surviving non-avian theropods before the asteroid impact brought the Mesozoic Era to an abrupt end.

One of the very last non-avian troodontids, surviving up to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

Where and when

Pectinodon lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 68 to 66 million years ago (Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from United States, in the Lance Formation.

The numbers

Length 2 m (estimates run from 1.8 to 2.2 m). Mass about 24 kg. Hip height about 0.7 m. That is 1.2 human-lengths, or 0.18 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from fragmentary remains; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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