Chirostenotes

*Chirostenotes pergracilis*

* Jurassic Park Institute Artwork
* Robert F Walters Artwork

***Chirostenotes*** (/ˌkaɪərɵˈstɛnɵtiːz/ KY-ro-STEN-ə-teez; named from Greek 'narrow-handed') is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous (about 76.5 million years ago) of Alberta, Canada. The type species is *Chirostenotes pergracilis*.

## History of discovery

*Chirostenotes* has a confusing history of discovery and naming. The first fossils of *Chirostenotes*, a pair of hands, were in 1914 found by George Fryer Sternberg near Little Sandhill Creek in the Campanian Dinosaur Park Formation of Canada, which has yielded the most dinosaurs of any Canadian formation. The specimens were studied by Lawrence Morris Lambe who, however, died before being able to formally name them. In 1924, Charles Whitney Gilmore adopted the name he found in Lambe's notes and described and named the type species *Chirostenotes pergracilis*. The generic name is derived from Greek cheir, "hand", and stenotes, "narrowness". The specific name means "throughout", per~, "gracile", *gracilis*, in Latin. The holotype is NMC 2367, the pair of hands. Another fossil connected to *Chirostenotes* is specimen CMN 8776, a set of jaws with strange teeth, which were originally referred by Gilmore to *Chirostenotes pergracilis*. Now that it is known that *Chirostenotes* was a toothless oviraptorosaur, the jaws have been renamed *Richardoestesia* and are from an otherwise unknown dinosaur, likely a dromaeosaurid.

*Chirostenotes* was but the first name assigned. Feet were then found, specimen CMN 8538, and in 1932 Charles Mortram Sternberg gave them the name *Macrophalangia canadensis*, meaning 'large toes from Canada'. Sternberg correctly recognized them as part of a meat-eating dinosaur but thought they belonged to an ornithomimid. In 1936, its lower jaws, specimen CMN 8776, were found by Raymond Sternberg near Steveville and in 1940 he gave them the name *Caenagnathus collinsi*. The generic name means 'recent jaw' from Greek kainos, "new", and gnathos, "jaw"; the specific name honours William Henry Collins. The toothless jaws were first thought to be those of a bird.

Slowly the precise relationship between the finds became clear. In 1960 Alexander Wetmore concluded that *Caenagnathus* was not a bird but an ornithomimid. In 1969 Edwin Colbert and Dale Russell suggested that *Chirostenotes* and *Macrophalangia* were one and the same animal. In 1976 Halszka Osmólska described *Caenagnathus* as an oviraptorosaurian. In 1981 the announcement of *Elmisaurus*, an Asian form of which both hand and feet had been preserved, showed the soundness of Colbert and Russell's conjecture.

In 1988, a specimen from storage since 1923 was discovered and studied by Philip J. Currie and Dale Russell. This fossil helped link the other discoveries into a single dinosaur. Since the first name applied to any of these remains was *Chirostenotes*, this were the only name that was recognized as valid.

Currie and Russell also addressed the complicating issue of a possible second form being present in the material. In 1933 William Arthur Parks had named *Ornithomimus elegans*, based on specimen ROM 781, another foot from Alberta. In 1971, Joël Cracraft, still under the assumption *Caenagnathus* was a bird, had named a second species of *Caenagnathus*: *Caenagnathus sternbergi*, based on specimen CMN 2690, a small lower jaw. In 1988 Russell and Currie concluded that these fossils might present a more gracile morph of *Chirostenotes pergracilis*. In 1989 however, Currie thought that they represented a separate smaller species, and named this as a second species of the closely related *Elmisaurus*: *Elmisaurus elegans*. In 1997, this was renamed to *Chirostenotes elegans* by Hans-Dieter Sues. The species was moved to the new genus *Leptorhynchos* in 2013.

Several larger skeletons from the early Maastrichtian Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta and the late Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of Montana and South Dakota have been referred to *Chirostenotes* in the past, though more recent studies concluded that they represent several new species. The Horseshore Canyon formation specimen was renamed *Epichirostenotes* in 2011, while the Hell Creek Formation specimens have been referred to the genus *Anzu*.

In 2007 a cladistic study by Philip Senter cast doubt on the idea that all of the large Dinosaur Park Formation fossils belonged to the same creature. Coding the original hand and jaw specimens separately showed that while the *Caenagnathus* holotype remained in the more basal position in the Caenagnathidae commonly assigned to it, the *Chirostenotes pergracilis* holotype was placed as an advanced oviraptorosaurian and an oviraptorid. Subsequent studies found that the *Caenagnathus* jaws did in fact group together with other traditional caenagnathids, but not necessarily *Chirostenotes*. New specimens described by Funston et al. (2015) and Funston & Currie (2020) indicated that *Chirostenotes* is a distinct form from *Caenagnathus*.

## Description

*Chirostenotes* was characterized by long arms ending in slender relatively straight claws, and long powerful legs with slender toes. In 2016 Paul estimated its length at 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) and its weight at 100 kg (220 lbs), while the same year Molina-Pérez and Larramendi gave a length of 2.6 meters (8.5 ft) and a weight of 40 kg (88 lbs).

## Classification

The cladogram below follows an analysis by Funston & Currie in 2016, which found *Elmisaurus* within Caenagnathidae.

## JPInstitute.com Description

Chirostenotes was a small, quick hunter with long slender hands. Scientists are not really sure of its exact family tree. Since its discovery, Chirostenotes has been put into several different branches of the dinosaur family tree - including the oviraptorid and dromaeosaur families. Currently, it is a part of the elmisaur family, but that may change once more fossils are uncovered.

This little dinosaur has been the subject of a good amount of study over the years. There are currently four species named, but it is generally believed that at least two of these will prove invalid and that, of the other two, the difference may be attributed to gender. As a later Cretaceous member of the maniraptorid, it may have been a feathered dinosaur based on current thinking about this family.

## Dinosaur Field Guide Description

Chirostenotes ("slender hands") has had a confusing history. Different parts of this dinosaur were found separately at different times and given different names. The hands were found first, in 1924, and given the name Chirostenotes. Then the feet were found in 1932 and given the name Macrophalangia ("big toes"). Both the hands and feet were recognized (correctly) as being from a small meat-eating dinosaur, but paleontologists were not certain if it was the same species of dinosaur or not. In 1936, the toothless jaws were found and thought to be from a bird, Caenagnathus ("modern (style] jaws"). In 1988, a specimen that had been in storage since |923 was studied. This fossil helped to join these different parts together because it showed that these types of jaws, feet, and hands were all from the same dinosaur! This fossil also
showed that Chirostenotes was an oviraptorosaur, a relative of the Asian Caudipteryx and Oviraptor.

### Fun Facts

The Dinosaur Park Formation in Canada has produced more dinosaur species than any other Cretaceous formation.

### Trivia

A set of laws with unusual teeth were once thought to be from Chirostenotes. Now that We known that Chirostenotes had toothless jaws, these toothed fossils (now called Ricardoestesia) are from a mystery dinosaur!

## Links

http://web.archive.org/web/20031006232955fw\_/http://www.jpinstitute.com/dinopedia/dinocards/dc\_chiro.html