Hesperonychus

Hesperonychus (meaning "western claw") was a small, carnivorous dinosaur. It was a member of the family Dromaeosauridae, along with its larger relatives Deinonychus and Velociraptor. There is one described species, Hesperonychus elizabethae. The type species was named in honor of Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology who collected it as a student in 1982. It is known from fossils recovered from the lowermost strata of the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, dating to the late Cretaceous (Campanian stage) about 76.5 million years ago. Though known from partial remains, researchers have estimated that it was a small dinosaur measuring about 1 metre (3.3 ft) long and weighing between 1.5 and 2 kilograms (3.3 and 4.4 lb), making it the smallest carnivorous non-avian dinosaur known from North America.