''Boreonykus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

dromaeosaurid Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

, that lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

in the area of present

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Fragmentary dromaeosaurid remains were discovered in the eighties at the

Pipestone Creek Pipestone Creek is a waterway that runs through central Alberta, Canada. For example, over of Pipestone Creek parkland is situated in Millet, Alberta, with a combination of meadows and urban forest. It originates east of Pigeon Lake and flows ea ...

site in central

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

during excavations of a

bonebed A bone bed is any geological stratum or deposit that contains bones of whatever kind. Inevitably, such deposits are sedimentary in nature. Not a formal term, it tends to be used more to describe especially dense collections such as Lagerstätt ...

containing at least twenty-seven individuals of the ceratopsid '' Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai''. They were initially partly referred to a '' Saurornitholestes'' sp in 2001. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

''Boreonykus certekorum'' was named and described by Phil Bell and

Philip John Currie Philip John Currie (born March 13, 1949) is a Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In the ...

in 2015. The genus name is a variation of "Boreonychus", "northern claw". The specific name ''certekorum'' honors the Certek Heating Solutions company, https://certek.ca/ that works in the oil industry, and provided financial support for the excavations. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

specimen of ''Boreonykus'', TMP 1989.055.0047, was found in a layer of the Wapiti Formation in central

, which dates from the late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...

, 73.27 ± 0.25 million years ago. It consists of a right

frontal bone The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull. The bone consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, pa ...

. Fourteen loose teeth have been referred to the species, as well as several postcranial bones, perhaps of the same individual: the specimen TMP 1988.055.0129, a rear caudal vertebra; UALVP 53597, a claw of the second finger, and the specimen TMP 1986.055.0184.1, a sickle claw of the foot. A single

autapomorphy In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to ...

, unique derived trait, was indicated: the ridges bordering the fronts of the depressions around the supratemporal fenestrae form an acute angle of 55° together, pointing to the rear. ''Boreonykus'' was, within the

Dromaeosauridae Dromaeosauridae () is a family of feathered theropod dinosaurs. They were generally small to medium-sized feathered carnivores that flourished in the Cretaceous Period. The name Dromaeosauridae means 'running lizards', from Greek ('), meaning ...

, placed in the

Velociraptorinae Velociraptorinae is a subfamily of the theropod group Dromaeosauridae. The earliest velociraptorines are probably ''Nuthetes'' from the United Kingdom, and possibly '' Deinonychus'' from North America. However, several indeterminate velociraptor ...

. It was seen as both an indication of faunal provincialism and a quick species turn-over rate.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21977554 Eudromaeosaurs Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Taxa named by Philip J. Currie Paleontology in Alberta Campanian genus first appearances Campanian genus extinctions