Counterbalancing Terrible-Claw

Deinonychus antirrhopus

(Ostrom, 1969)
 

    During the middle Cretaceous, North America is a rather poorly understood continent filled with strange creatures, the precursors of later and more familiar beasts.  Deinonychus antirrhopus, the namesake of the clade Deinonychosauria , is one of the better known inhabitants of this time and place.

    D. antirrhopus is the principal predator of the primitive iguanodont Tenontosaurus tillettorum , a heavy and dangerous animal to hunt.  D. antirrhopus generally join into small packs to kill this prey, darting quickly in and out of the iguanodont's reach, inflicting bloody but superficial wounds with manual talons and sickle-shaped inner toe.

    As the great beast weakens, it becomes less and less able to fend off the attacks of the predaotrs, who are perfectly content to let their prey bleed to death before gathering round to feed.

Thanks to Ken Kinman for his help with the translation of the specific name.

Other sites containing pertinent information:

• T. Mike Keesey's Deinonychus page
• The Museum of Natural History's Deinonychus page
• Ants's Deinonychus
• S. H. Morgan's  Deinonychus page
• Luis Rey's Deinonychus page
• Staffan Linder's Deinonychus page
•  Øyvind M. Padron's  Deinonychus
• "Sat"'s, Deinonychus
• John Conway's fluffy Deinonychus
  
• The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs edited by Gregory S. Paul, published by St. Martin's Press ( New York) in 2000.

© Daniel Bensen 2002
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This species is part of a larger painting
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