In the Books[]
Hex the troodon.
The stenonychosaurus, called troodon in the books, are small, carnivorous blue or green dinosaurs who live in the Vegmeat Zone. Hex was a stenonychosaurus who worked for Commodore Kallos and the Carnivore Crime Cartel. Their alliegances are unclear, since Hex was able to infiltrate the Astrosaurs Academy as a cleaner without a disguise and wasn't recognized as a carnivore. One is also seen attending King Rokol's speech in Earth Attack!.
Species[]
Real Stenonychosaurus, earlier called Troodon, were small theropod dinosaurs about 2.4 metres long. Its teeth are serrated and look like the teeth of a plant-eating dinosaur. These teeth gave it its name: Troodon means "wounding tooth" in Greek. Some scientists believe it was an omnivore, eating plants and meat. However, other scientists believe it was a strict carnivore because the wearing on Stenonychosaurus teeth indicates that it ate soft foods, like meat and insects. Its claws may have been used to help Stenonychosaurus climb trees, and its large eyes indicate that it was probably nocturnal, moving and hunting at night.
Julio Lacerda's illustration of a troodontid dinosaur in a snowy forest.
Since it was a close relative of the dromaeosaur “raptor” group, dinosaurs known to have feathers, it’s almost certain that Stenonychosaurus had them too. Stenonychosaurus and its family, the troodontids, were smaller and more lightly built than the (relatively) larger and stronger dromaeosaurs, and would have taken smaller prey than the dromaeosaurs did. Both troodontids and dromaeosaurs are in Paraves, a clade of life that also contains modern birds - meaning Troodon is one of the closest relatives to birds among the non-avian dinosaurs.
Fast-moving and birdlike, Stenonychosaurus is commonly viewed as one of the most intelligent dinosaur species and was related to the famous Velociraptor. The discovery of Stenonychosaurus nests indicates that, like its relative Oviraptor, it took care of its young. Their nesting style and the kind of eggs they laid have characteristics of birds, modern dinosaurs, and crocdiles, who are more ancient relatives. Both birds and crocodiles actively guard their nests and provide parental care. Some studies of skeletons associated with these nests suggest that, like some modern birds, the father Stenonychosaurus was the parent who guarded and cared for the eggs after they were laid.
It was one of the last dinosaurs to exist, living from 75 to 65 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils of Stenonychosaurus have been found across North America, indicating that this dinosaur was common. Unlike portrayals in movies and video games, there is no evidence that Stenonychosaurus was venomous or attacked large prey. It would mostly have been a danger to the small animals it preyed on - lizards, insects, mammals, eggs, and small or baby dinosaurs.
Today Troodon is considered a wastebasket taxon - many small carnivorous dinosaurs were assigned to it that were later found to be different animals. The dinosaur most commonly called Troodon is now named Stenonychosaurus (“narrow claw lizard”), and the name Troodon itself, since the only material the name definitively refers to is a tooth classified in 1856, is now mostly abandoned as a nomen dubium.