A field guide to mesozoic birds and other winged dinosaurs

Troodontids
Troodontids, “wounding teeth”, are a relatively small group of
deinonychosaurians, but are in some ways more similar to modern birds.
They tend to be more slender in build, with longer legs well suited to running.
They usually exhibit long, narrow snouts filled with small, leaf-shaped
teeth, and at least some may have been omnivorous. They are generally
smaller-winged and shorter-tailed than other large frond-tailed birds.
Advanced troodontids, the troodontines, were all similar to each
other in appearance and size. The general troodontine body plan was very
successful in the Late Cretaceous, with similar species dispersed through
Asia and North America. Many more species are known only from teeth,
such as Pectinodon bakkeri, which shows that troodontines survived until
the very end of the Cretaceous period.
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