page_title: Timeline of dromaeosaurid research
section_title: Prescientific
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of dromaeosaurid research / Prescientific
caption_attribution_description: English: Cloverly Formation near Shell
context_page_description: This timeline of dromaeosaurid research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the dromaeosaurids, a group of sickle-clawed, bird-like theropod dinosaurs including animals like Velociraptor. Since the Native Americans of Montana used the sediments of the Cloverly Formation to produce pigments, they may have encountered remains of the dromaeosaurid Deinonychus hundreds of years before these fossils came to the attention of formally trained scientists.
  In 1922 Matthew and Brown named the new genus and species Dromaeosaurus albertensis, considering it a new type within the family Deinodontidae, a now-defunct family name that once applied to the tyrannosaurs. Not long after, Velociraptor was discovered in Mongolia by the Central Asiatic Expedition. Dromaeosaur research was fairly quiet until the 1960s, when John Ostrom described the new genus and species Deinonychus antirrhopus. This discovery played a major role in setting off the Dinosaur Renaissance because Deinonychus was obviously a vigorous, active animal, and exhibited characteristics linking it to the origin of birds.
context_section_description: The Crow people and other Native American groups inhabiting Montana used to use rocks from the Cloverly Formation to make red pigments. Since the red pigments are richest in the same layers of the formation that preserve dinosaur fossils, it is likely that Native Americans encountered Deinonychus fossils long before scientifically trained paleontologists.
caption: An outcrop of the Cloverly Formation
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