Question 1

How do you say Dromaeosaurus?

Accepted Answer

You say it like this: DROM-ee-oh-SAW-russ. Break it into four chunks and say the first and third parts with the most force. The first syllable DROM rhymes with mom, then ee, then oh, then SAW-russ just like saw and russ. Once you have got those four parts, put them together and you will sound like a paleontologist.

Question 2

What does Dromaeosaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

The name Dromaeosaurus means running lizard in Ancient Greek. Dromaios means swift or running and sauros means lizard. The species name albertensis refers to Alberta, Canada, where the first fossils were found. So the full name basically means the swift lizard of Alberta.

Question 3

How big was Dromaeosaurus?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus was about 6 feet long, which is roughly 1.8 meters, and weighed around 33 pounds, or about 15 kilograms. That makes it roughly the size of a large dog like a border collie or a labrador. It was actually one of the smaller predatory dinosaurs of its time, but what it lacked in size it made up for with powerful jaws and sharp claws.

Question 4

Was Dromaeosaurus dangerous?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Dromaeosaurus was genuinely dangerous, especially for smaller animals. Scientists believe it had an unusually powerful bite for its size, possibly strong enough to crush bone. It also had the signature sickle-shaped killing claw on each foot that all raptors in its family carried. Pound for pound it may have been one of the most formidable small predators of the Late Cretaceous in North America.

Question 5

Is Dromaeosaurus the same as Velociraptor?

Accepted Answer

No, but they are close relatives. Both belong to the family Dromaeosauridae, and Dromaeosaurus is actually the dinosaur that gave that family its name. They were similar in size, but Dromaeosaurus had a much more heavily built skull and probably had a stronger bite. Velociraptor lived in Asia while Dromaeosaurus lived in North America, so they never actually met.

Question 6

When did Dromaeosaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 80 to 66 million years ago. That means it was alive right up to the mass extinction event that wiped out the non-bird dinosaurs. It shared its world with famous dinosaurs like Edmontosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus in what is now Alberta, Canada.

Question 7

Did Dromaeosaurus have feathers?

Accepted Answer

Scientists strongly believe Dromaeosaurus was feathered, even though no direct feather impressions from this specific dinosaur have been found. The evidence comes from its close relatives in the Dromaeosauridae family, many of which are preserved with clear feather evidence. The entire group is now understood to have been feathered, so Dromaeosaurus almost certainly was too.

Question 8

Where was Dromaeosaurus found?

Accepted Answer

The main fossils of Dromaeosaurus were found in Alberta, Canada, specifically in rock formations including the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, the Dinosaur Park Formation, and the Hell Creek Formation. Teeth that may belong to Dromaeosaurus or a close relative have also been found in Alaska and parts of the western United States.

Question 9

Who discovered Dromaeosaurus?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus was formally described by paleontologists William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922. Barnum Brown was one of the most famous fossil hunters of all time and also discovered key Tyrannosaurus rex specimens. The fossils were collected from the badlands of Alberta, Canada.

Question 10

What did Dromaeosaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus was a carnivore that likely hunted small to medium-sized vertebrates. Good candidates for its prey include lizards, small mammals, fish, and juvenile dinosaurs. Its powerful jaws and razor-sharp, backward-curving teeth suggest it could process struggling prey efficiently. It probably did not tackle the giant hadrosaurs and ceratopsians it shared its habitat with.

Question 11

Why is Dromaeosaurus important?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus is important because it is the type genus of the Dromaeosauridae family, which means the entire raptor family is scientifically named after it. Every raptor you have ever heard of, from Velociraptor to Utahraptor to Microraptor, belongs to the family that Dromaeosaurus defines. It is also scientifically interesting because of its unusually powerful jaws compared to its raptor relatives.

Question 12

How does Dromaeosaurus compare to Velociraptor?

Accepted Answer

They were similar in length, both around 6 feet, but Dromaeosaurus was stockier and more heavily built. The biggest difference is in the skull: Dromaeosaurus had a much more robust skull with stronger jaw muscles, while Velociraptor had a long, slender snout. Velociraptor lived in Mongolia and China while Dromaeosaurus lived in Canada and the United States, and the two never overlapped.

Question 13

Was Dromaeosaurus smarter than other dinosaurs?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurids as a group, including Dromaeosaurus, are generally considered among the more intelligent dinosaurs based on their relatively large brain-to-body size ratios. Their active hunting lifestyle likely demanded good senses, fast reactions, and some degree of problem-solving ability. However, scientists are careful not to overstate dinosaur intelligence, as brain endocasts, the impressions left inside fossil skulls, only tell us so much.

Question 14

Is Dromaeosaurus in any movies or video games?

Accepted Answer

Dromaeosaurus is not as famous as Velociraptor in movies or games, but it appears in some dinosaur documentaries and paleontology-focused games and books. The raptors in the original Jurassic Park films were actually much larger than any real Velociraptor or Dromaeosaurus and were loosely inspired by Deinonychus. Dromaeosaurus deserves way more screen time given that it literally gave the whole raptor family its name.

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