Troodontinae is a
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
of
troodontid
Troodontidae is a clade of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. During most of the 20th century, troodontid fossils were few and incomplete and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with many dinosaurian lineages. More recent fossil discov ...
dinosaurs. The subfamily was first used in 2017 for the group of troodontids descended from the last common ancestor of ''
Gobivenator mongoliensis'' and ''
Zanabazar junior
''Zanabazar'' (meaning "Zanabazar") is a genus of large troodontid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. The genus was originally named by Rinchen Barsbold as the new species ''Saurornithoides junior''. In 2009 it was reclassified as it ...
,'' but has been redefined to be the least inclusive clade containing ''
Saurornithoides mongoliensis'' and ''
Troodon formosus
''Troodon'' ( ; ''Troödon'' in older sources) is a wastebasket taxon and a dubious genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs known definitively from the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period (about 77 mya). It includes at leas ...
,'' utilizing 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 specimen ...
of the clade.
Classification
Below is a cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...
of the Troodontinae as published by Aaron van der Reest and Phil 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 2017.[
]
References