Albertavenator

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Albertavenator
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 71.5–71  Ma
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Albertavenator.png
Illustration of the holotype frontal of Albertavenator
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: Troodontidae
Genus: Albertavenator
Evans et al., 2017
Type species
Albertavenator curriei
Evans et al., 2017

Albertavenator (meaning "Alberta hunter") is a genus of small troodontid theropod dinosaur, known from the early Maastrichtian in the Cretaceous period. It contains a single species, A. curriei, named after paleontologist Phil Currie, based on a partial left frontal found in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta during the 1990s. [1] [2] Albertavenator's discovery indicates that small dinosaur diversity may be underestimated at present due to the difficulty in identifying species from fragmentary remains. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip J. Currie</span> Canadian paleontologist and curator

Philip John Currie is a Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In the 1980s, he became the director of the Canada-China Dinosaur Project, the first cooperative palaeontological partnering between China and the West since the Central Asiatic Expeditions in the 1920s, and helped describe some of the first feathered dinosaurs. He is one of the primary editors of the influential Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, and his areas of expertise include theropods, the origin of birds, and dinosaurian migration patterns and herding behavior. He was one of the models for palaeontologist Alan Grant in the film Jurassic Park.

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References

  1. Evans, D.C.; Cullen, T.M.; Larson, D.W.; Rego, A. (2017). "A new species of troodontid theropod (Dinosauria: Maniraptora) from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Maastrichtian) of Alberta, Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 54 (8): 813–826. Bibcode:2017CaJES..54..813E. doi:10.1139/cjes-2017-0034.
  2. DinoChecker Archives ALBERTAVENATOR
  3. "New species of dinosaur named after Canadian icon: Dinosaur species from Alberta". sciencedaily.com. July 17, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2023.