Portal:Reptiles/Reptile articles/13

The holotype tooth of Dromaeosauroides.

Dromaeosauroides is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of what is now Denmark. It is known from two teeth, the first of which was found in 2000. Based on the first tooth, the genus and species Dromaeosauroides bornholmensis was named in 2003. The genus name means "Dromaeosaurus-like", due to the similarity to the teeth of that genus, and the species name means "from Bornholm". The holotype tooth is 21.7 millimetres (0.85 in) long, and the second tooth is 15 millimetres (0.59 in). They are curved and finely serrated. In life, Dromaeosauroides would have been 3 to 4 metres (10 to 10 ft) in length, and weighed about 40 kilograms (88 lb). As a dromaeosaur it would have been feathered, and had a large sickle claw on its feet like its relatives Dromaeosaurus and Deinonychus. Some teeth from Britain that have been referred to the genus Nuthetes may also belong to Dromaeosauroides. Coprolites containing fish remains found in the Jydegaard Formation may belong to this animal.

Dromaeosauroides was discovered in the Jydegaard Formation in Robbedale, on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It is one of the oldest known dromaeosaurs in the world, and the first known uncontested dromaeosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Europe. It lived in a coastal lagoon environment with sauropods, as evidenced by a possible titanosaur tooth. Remains and tracks of other dinosaurs have been found in several formations on Bornholm. (see more...)