| Troodontidae | |
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| Several species of troodontids | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Troodontidae Gilmore, 1924 |
| Type species | |
| †Troodon formosus Leidy, 1856 | |
| Subgroups | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Close relatives of the dromaeosaurids, the dinosaurs in Troodontidae make up the other group of deinonychosaurs. Named after the now invalid Troodon, they are possibly one of the most intelligent theropods, with the exact intellect still being determined to this day. Fossils are currently known from North America, Asia and Europe. Due to the fragmentary nature of most troodontids, anatomy and intelligence is hard to interpret.
Time Period[]
These dinosaurs lived from the mid Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous, and the mass extinction at said period's end.
Classification[]
There are multiple possibilities of the genera included in Troodontidae as well as how they are related. Very primitive species, such as Anchiornis huxleyi, have alternately been found to be early troodontids or early members of the closely related group Avilalae by various studies.
The cladogram below follows the results of a study by Pascal Godefroit and colleagues in 2013.
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In 2014, Brusatte, Lloyd, Wang and Norell published an analysis on Coelurosauria, a simplified version shown below. This analysis included more troodontid species but failed to resolve many of their interrelationships, resulting in large "polytomies" (sets of species where the branching order in the family tree is uncertain).
| Paraves |
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In 2017, Aaron van der Reest and Phil Currie published a new genus and species, Latenivenatrix mcmasterae, and they coined the subfamily Troodontinae, defined as the group of troodontids descended from the last common ancestor of Gobivenator mongoliensis and Zanabazar junior.
| Troodontidae |
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Gallery[]
