Dromaeosauridae

Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek (''''), meaning 'running at full speed', 'swift', and (''''), meaning 'lizard'. In informal usage, they are often called raptors (after Velociraptor), a term popularized by the film Jurassic Park; several genera include the term "raptor" directly in their name, and popular culture has come to emphasize their bird-like appearance and speculated bird-like

alt= |thumb |The "Archaeoraptor" fossil in the Paleozoological Museum of China "Archaeoraptor" is the informal generic name for a fossil chimera from China in an article published in National Geographic magazine in 1999. The magazine claimed that the fossil was a "missing link" between birds and terrestrial theropod dinosaurs. Even before this publication, there had been severe doubts about the fossil's authenticity. Further scientific study showed it to be a forgery constructed from rearranged pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body belong

Hesperonychus (meaning "western claw") is a genus of small dromaeosaurid dinosaur. There is one described species, Hesperonychus elizabethae. The type species was named in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology who collected it as a student in 1982. It is known from fossils recovered from the Dinosaur Park Formation and possibly from the uppermost strata of the Oldman Formation of Alberta, dating to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around .

Zhenyuanlong (meaning ''"Zhenyuan's dragon", from Chinese Pinyin 龙/龍 lóng "dragon") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. It lived during the Aptian age of the early Cretaceous period, approximately 125 million years ago. It is known from a single specimen belonging to the species Zhenyuanlong suni'' (Chinese: 孫氏振元龍). This type specimen preserved a nearly complete skeleton that contains traces of feathers, including long tail feathers and large wings. In addition to further complicating diversity of Liaoning dromaeosaurids, this specimen provides th

Ornithodesmus (meaning "bird link") is a genus of small, dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Isle of Wight in England, dating to about 125 million years ago. The name, along with that of the type and only species, O. cluniculus, was originally assigned to a bird-like sacrum (a series of vertebrae fused to the hip bones), initially believed to come from a bird and subsequently identified as a pterosaur. More complete pterosaur remains were later assigned to Ornithodesmus. More recently, a detailed analysis determined that the original specimen in fact came from a small theropod, specifically a drom

Daurlong (meaning "Daur dragon") is an extinct genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Longjiang Formation of China. The genus contains a single species, D. wangi, known from a nearly complete skeleton. Daurlong represents the first described occurrence of a preserved intestinal region in a theropod closely related to birds.

Shanag is a genus of paravian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of Mongolia. It may be a dromaeosaurid, but some researchers are skeptical of this classification. The type species is S. ashile.