Byronosaurus was a 6 foot long raptor dinosaur which lived in Mongolia during the late Cretaceous Period 75 million years ago. Fossils of it have been found in the Djadochta Formation within Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, a place rich in Cretaceous-aged fossils. The most famous locality within this formation is the evocatively-named Flaming Cliffs, which, as you can guess, is distinctive for its bright orange sandstone. Famous dinosaurs from this formation include Protoceratops, Oviraptor, and Velociraptor, but there were many others, including Byronosaurus.
The fossils of this animal were found in 1993, which consisted of the front two-thirds of the upper and lower jaws, a few neck vertebrae, one finger bone, parts of both legs, and a couple of tail vertebrae. In 2000, these fossils were officially named Byronosaurus jaffei in honor of Byron Jaffe “in recognition of his family’s support for the Mongolian Academy of Sciences-American Museum of Natural History Paleontological Expeditions”.
Like Velociraptor, Byronosaurus was one of the so-called “raptor” dinosaurs; the two creatures were also about the same size. However, the two of them weren’t closely related. Byronosaurus belonged to a sub-group of raptors called the troodontids, named after Troodon of North America. The troodontids tended to have a slimmer build, longer skulls, smaller teeth, and large eyes in proportion to overall head size, leading some to suspect that they were nocturnal. Byronosaurus, in particular had very long thin jaws which were packed with tiny recurved teeth with no serrations. Its outward similarity to Austroraptor and other long-snouted raptors, who are believed to have been piscivorous, leads one to suspect that Byronosaurus was also a fish-eating specialist.
Byronosaurus jaffei. © Jason R. Abdale (October 11, 2026).
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Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized
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