Open Paleo

Bambiraptor

Burnham et al., 2000 BAM-bee-RAP-tor

Named after the Disney movie character Bambi (itself from Italian bambino meaning 'child') combined with Latin raptor meaning 'thief'. Full meaning: 'Bambi thief', referring to its small size.

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Bambiraptor is a genus of bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous (about 72 million years ago) of Montana. It was described by scientists at the University of Kansas, Yale University, and the University of New Orleans. The holotype fossil is less than 1 m (3.3 ft) long, although this specimen appears to be a juvenile, and it is possible that Bambiraptor is a juvenile Saurornitholestes. It is even suspected that the type specimen is a chimera, based on the fact that "there are elements of three different similarly sized lower legs included in the holotype." Because of its small size, it was named Bambiraptor feinbergi, after the popular Disney movie character (the name literally translates to "Bambi thief") and the surname of the wealthy family who bought and lent the specimen to the new Graves Museum of Natural History in Florida.

Under dispute

The subfamily placement of Bambiraptor is highly unstable. It has been recovered as a velociraptorine (Turner and colleagues, 2012), a saurornitholestine (Powers and colleagues, 2022), a microraptorine (Hartman and colleagues, 2019), and as an outlying basal eudromaeosaur sister to the rest of Eudromaeosauria (Currie and Evans, 2019; Pei and colleagues, 2020). It is placed at Eudromaeosauria incertae sedis pending resolution.

Diagnosis

  1. Jugal with row of foramina along ventral margin
  2. Scapula with large, medially directed acromion and distinct, short scapulocoracoid suture
  3. Coracoid with neck or peduncle forming part of glenoid; coracoid foramen absent
  4. 13 Dentary teeth and 9 maxillary teeth
  5. Ratio of humerus plus ulna to femur notably large (H+U/F = 1.68)
  6. Femur strongly recurved both laterally and posteriorly; lacks fourth trochanter

Species

Bambiraptor feinbergi Burnham et al., 2000

Type species

Named for Michael and Ann Feinberg, who acquired the specimen from a fossil poacher and made it available to science.

Holotype
AMNH FARB 30556 , American Museum of Natural History
Formerly
FIP 001 (rehoused from Florida Institute of Paleontology)
Material
Nearly complete skeleton (~90%) of a subadult individual.
Horizon
Two Medicine Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Jones Ranch, Montana, United States

Notable specimens

  • MOR 553S-7-30-91-274

    Museum of the Rockies ontogeny

    A referred upper jaw bone (maxilla). A 2021 SVP abstract notes the juvenile holotype is only 30-40% the size of this specimen; scaling up the holotype implies an adult length of about 2.5 to 3.3 meters, documenting a much larger growth stage than the type.

    Hohman & Varricchio (2021)

References

  1. Burnham, D. A.; Derstler, K. L.; Currie, P. J.; Bakker, R. T.; Zhou, Z.; Ostrom, J. H. (2000). Remarkable new birdlike dinosaur (Theropoda: Maniraptora) from the Upper Cretaceous of Montana. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions 13: 1-14. doi:10.17161/pcns.1808.3761 burnham2000a
  2. Hohman, C. J.; Varricchio, D. J. (2021). Ontogenetic implications of two distinct dromaeosaurid maxillae from the Cretaceous (Campanian) Two Medicine Formation of Montana, U.S.A. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts 142-143.

    SVP 81st Annual Meeting abstract.

    hohman2021a
  3. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features.

    paul2024a
  4. Pei, R.; Pittman, M.; Goloboff, P. A.; Dececchi, T. A.; Habib, M. B.; Kaye, T. G.; Larsson, H. C. E.; Norell, M. A.; Brusatte, S. L.; Xu, X. (2020). Potential for Powered Flight Neared by Most Close Avialan Relatives, but Few Crossed Its Thresholds. Current Biology 30(20): 4033-4046.e8. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.105

    Recovered Bambiraptor as an outlying basal eudromaeosaur, sister to remaining Eudromaeosauria.

    pei2020a
  5. Turner, A. H.; Makovicky, P. J.; Norell, M. A. (2012). A Review of Dromaeosaurid Systematics and Paravian Phylogeny. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 371: 1-206. doi:10.1206/748.1

    Recovered Bambiraptor as a velociraptorine dromaeosaurid.

    turner2012a
  6. Hartman, S.; Mortimer, M.; Wahl, W. R.; Lomax, D. R.; Lippincott, J.; Lovelace, D. M. (2019). A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight. PeerJ 7: e7247. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247

    Recovered Bambiraptor as a microraptorine paravian.

    hartman2019a
  7. Powers, M. J.; Fabbri, M.; Doschak, M. R.; Bhullar, B. A. S.; Evans, D. C.; Norell, M. A.; Currie, P. J. (2022). A new hypothesis of eudromaeosaurian evolution: CT scans assist in testing and constructing morphological characters. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41(5). doi:10.1080/02724634.2021.2010087

    Placed Bambiraptor within Saurornitholestinae based on computed tomography analysis

    powers2022a
  8. Currie, P. J.; Evans, D. C. (2019). Cranial Anatomy of New Specimens of Saurornitholestes langstoni (Dinosauria, Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Alberta. The Anatomical Record 303(4): 691-715. Wiley. doi:10.1002/ar.24241

    Recovered Bambiraptor as a basal eudromaeosaur.

    currie2019a
  9. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Illustrated by E. Viola.

    jones2026c