Updated: Wed, 10/02/2024 - 13:45

From Saturday, Oct. 5 through Monday, Oct. 7, the Downtown and Macdonald Campuses will be open only to McGill students, employees and essential visitors. Many classes will be held online. Remote work required where possible. See Campus Public Safety website for details.

Du samedi 5 octobre au lundi 7 octobre, le campus du centre-ville et le campus Macdonald ne seront accessibles qu’aux étudiants et aux membres du personnel de l’Université McGill, ainsi qu’aux visiteurs essentiels. De nombreux cours auront lieu en ligne. Le personnel devra travailler à distance, si possible. Voir le site Web de la Direction de la protection et de la prévention pour plus de détails.

McGill.CA / Redpath Museum / Learning Services / Teaching resources / Dinosaurs

Dromaeosaurus

Dromaeosaurus
Image by Mike Chung (Redpath Museum).

The Redpath Museum Dromaeosaurus is on loan from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta. It is located in a display about the Origin of Birds. The two skeletons above the display are a chicken and an ostrich to show similarities between Dromaeosaurus and modern birds.

Species: Dromaeosaurus albertensis
Group: Theropoda
Family: Raptoridae
Name means: Running Lizard
Lived during: Late Cretaceous (74 million years ago)

Dromaeosaurus size comparison
Source: Osado. Accessed at the Wikipedia Commons. License terms.

Adult size: 1.8 metres (6 ft)
Weight: 25 kilograms (55 lbs)

Dromaeosaurus claw
Source: Mariana Ruiz Villareal. Accessed at the Wikipedia Commons (includes licensing information).

Diet: Carnivorous. Dromaeosaurs could leap onto their prey, digging in their front claws to keep the prey at arm’s length while balancing on one leg to deliver slashing kicks with the other leg. The large sickle-claw on their feet could cut through dinosaur skin.

distribution
Source: EOZyo. Accessed at the Wikipedia Commons (includes licensing information).

Discovery: in Alberta and midwestern USA.
Other info: The more familiar term for these kinds of dinosaurs is ‘raptors’. The first raptors were discovered in Canada in 1914. Raptors had bigger brains compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs. Fossils found in China show prints of feathers or down which indicate that these dinosaurs may have developed wings.

Land Acknowledgement

McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

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