Welcome to Acheroraptor
Name Definition
Underworld thief
Name Given By
Evans et al., 2013
Location
Hell Creek Formation of Montana, U.S
Classification
Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda, Maniraptora, Dromaeosauridae, Eudromaeosauria, Velociraptorinae
Size
estimated to be about 1 meter tall, about 2-3 meters long, 18 - 40 kg
Temporal Range
Maastrichtian stage of the late Cretaceous, 67.2 - 66 million years ago
Ecological niche
small sized predator
Species/Sub Species
A. temertyorum
Diet
Acheroraptor would have hunted many of the mammals and small reptiles present in the area as well as juvenile dinosaurs
Introduction
Acheroraptor is a genus of velociraptorine dromaeosaurids that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous. The genus name means “underworld thief” which refers to the formation Hell Creek, while the species name temertyorum honors James and Louis Temerty who are the chairmen of Northland Power, a power producer founded in 1987, as well as ROM Board of Governors, with the two being big supporters of the Royal Ontario Museum for many years, the museum that Acheroraptor is held in. Acheroraptor is currently the youngest known genus of dromaeosaurid known and lived at the very end of the Cretaceous while others lived around 70 or 80 million years ago. Acheroraptor is the first confirmed genus of dromaeosaurid coming from the Hell Creek Formation, a place that yields the fossils of many other North American dinosaurs. Dromaeosaurid teeth were already discovered from this formation before the description of Acheroraptor, but they were only presumed to come from others like Dromaeosaurus or Saurornitholestes, however, now these teeth are commonly attributed to Acheroraptor. Acheroraptor is currently only known from a maxilla and dentary (the dentary is the front part of the lower jaw) as well as some additional teeth. While it might not be much, these fossils were enough to determine it was technically the North American counterpart of Velociraptor and was in the subfamily Velociraptorinae. Comparison to the Acheroraptor fossils suggests that the holotype specimen was somewhere around 2 to 3 meters long. While it was initially the only dromaeosaurid discovered in Hell Creek, 2 years later, Dakotaraptor, a significantly larger 5.5 meter long dromaeosaurid, was discovered in the same formation. Other paleofauna discovered in the Hell Creek Formation are Tyrannosaurus, Nanotyrannus (though the former may be synonymous with the latter), Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Denversaurus, as well as plethora of troodontids, ornithomimids, oviraptorosaurs, crocodylomorphs, pachycephalosaurids, and other typical late Cretaceous fauna.