| Euronychodon Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Infraorder: | Deinonychosauria? |
| Genus: | Euronychodon |
| Species | |
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Euronychodon ("European claw tooth") is the name given to a genus of coelurosaur dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, described by Miguel Telles Antunes and Denise Sigogneau-Russell in 1991. It is similar to another coelurosaur, Paronychodon.
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Two probable species of Euronychodon have been found to date.
Being a tooth-taxon, the true affinities of Euronychodon are hard to determine. The teeth are similar to the better-known Paronychodon, which may be a synonym. Paronychodon was originally described as similar to Zapsalis, another tooth taxon often considered synonymous with Richardoestesia (a possible dromaeosaurid), it was later considered to be a coelurid, an ornithomimosaur, a dromaeosaurid, an archaeopterygid, a troodontid, though it could also be another kind of coelurosaurian theropod. While most researchers have therefore considered it simply indeterminate theropod teeth, a small consensus has found them to be deinonychosaurs. One study showed that the tooth enamel is identical to that found in Byronosaurus, a troodontid.[1]
The remains indicate a small animal, estimated at around 2 meters (6.6 feet).
The teeth indicate a carnivorous or insectivorous diet.