Description

Albertonykus borealis
Theropod
Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)
Hell Creek Formation
Wibaux County, Montana, USA

Rare 30mm Alvarezsaurid hand claw.

Albertonykus is a genus of theropod that lived at the very end of the Cretaceous. It is a member of the Family, Alvarezsauridae, an unusual group better-known from earlier in the Cretaceous of South America and Asia. These dinosaurs had long tube-like snouts and short but strong arms – built like an anteater. It has been proposed that it broke into the nests of ants or termites to feed on those insects.

Albertonykus is one of those oddball dinosaurs we didn’t know about in the 1970’s.  That doesn’t means its bones hadn’t been found.  They were just mixed with those of other dinosaurs at an especially rich site in Alberta, Canada and they weren’t sorted out and studied until the early 2000’s.

Interesting claw from a dinosaur rarely found in the Hell Creek Formation.