Acheroraptor temertyorum

Acheroraptor is an extinct genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in present-day Montana in the United States during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. It was described by Canadian paleontologists David Evans, Derek Larson, and Philip J. Currie in 2013. The genus contains a single species, A. temertyorum, based on an isolated maxilla with teeth. An incomplete dentary found nearby was also assigned to the species. These fossils were initially discovered by commercial fossil collectors in the Hell Creek Formation, and were later sold to the Royal Ontario Museum. Acheroraptor is among the geologically youngest dromaeosaurids.

Acheroraptor temertyorum

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AcheroraptorPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Dromaeosauridae

Time the record covers

At most 6.2 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 72.2 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–68 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72.7 Mya65.5 Mya

2 occurrences of Acheroraptor temertyorum on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Hell Creek — 47.05°N, 107.35°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°W

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The named rock units Acheroraptor temertyorum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Acheroraptor temertyorum and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Acheroraptor temertyorum and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

54 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Acheroraptor temertyorum, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Acheroraptor temertyorum

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acheroraptor temertyorum was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAcheroraptor through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Evans et al. 2013