Very Rare and Excellent Dromaeosaur Dewclaw

Description: A dewclaw is a vestigial digit of the foot of many mammals, birds, and reptiles (including some extinct orders, like certain theropods). It grows higher on the leg so that in digitigrade species, when the animal is standing, it does not make contact with the ground.

It belonged to a member of the Dromaeosauridae. The bird-like dromaeosaurs possessed a switchblade like claw on their hind feet which is presumed to have been used in killing their prey. Some, perhaps all dromaeosaurs were feathered, and may have been pack hunters. In fact, the dromaeosaurid bauplan helped to spark theories that dinosaurs may have been active, fast, and closely related to birds.A specimen of the plant-eating dinosaur Tenontosaurus was found surrounded by the remains of several Deinonychus which presumably died in a concerted attack. Another famous fossil assemblage called the “fighting dinosaurs”was discovered in Mongolia in 1971 which preserved a Protoceratops locked in battle with a Velociraptor. The name “raptor” is a shortened form of Velociraptor, an Asian taxon of small dromaeosaurs made famous by Jurassic Park. The dromaeosaurs enjoyed a cosmopolitan existence, and lived from the mid-Jurassic until the end Cretaceous extinction. They ranged in size from the 60 cm Microraptor to the 6 meter Utahraptor in size.