page_title: Hesperornithoides
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Hesperornithoides / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: A side view portrait of Hesperornithoides
context_page_description: Hesperornithoides is a genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period.
context_section_description: The length of the holotype individual was in 2019 estimated at 89 cm (35 in) long. Such a body size is rather limited for a troodontid. The specimen may represent an adult or subadult individual, due to the lack of cranial and body proportions associated with juvenile individuals. Nevertheless, either assignation would not be much different; for instance, the estimated 89 cm (35 in) would become 1 m (3.3 ft). The describing authors established some derived or apomorphic traits relative to the Paraves. The jugal bone is pneumatised. The rear branch of the lacrimal bone is short, with less than 15% of the length of the descending branch, measured from the inner corner downwards. The quadrate bone is part of the outer edge of the foramen paraquadraticum. In the lower jaw the external side opening is small, with less than an eighth of the length of the jaw as a whole. On the humerus, the ridge towards the inner condyle represents more than 15% of the total distal width of the element. The third claw of the hand is about as large as the second claw. The lower inner corner of the shinbone projects to the front.
caption: Hesperornithoides portrait
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