Talos (dinosaur)

Talos Temporal range: Campanian, 75.95 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Articulated foot
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Family:	†Troodontidae
Genus:	†Talos Zanno et al., 2011
Species:	†T. sampsoni
Binomial name
Talos sampsoni Zanno et al., 2011

Talos is an extinct genus of carnivorous bird-like theropod dinosaur, an advanced troodontid which lived during the late Cretaceous period (late Campanian, about 75.95 ) in what is now Utah, United States.

Talos is known only from the holotype specimen UMNH VP 19479, a partial postcranial skeleton of a subadult individual including the handlimbs, pelvis, vertebral fragments, chevrons and the left ulna. It was discovered and collected in 2008 by M. J. Knell during the Kaiparowits Basin Project, initiated by the University of Utah in 2000, from the Kaiparowits Formation within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It was first named by Lindsay E. Zanno, David J. Varricchio, Patrick M. O'Connor, Alan L. Titus, and Michael J. Knell in 2011 and the type species is Talos sampsoni. The generic name comes from Talos, a giant bronze automaton in Greek mythology and is intended to be a pun on the English word talon. The specific name honors television paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson for researching and collecting fossils during the Kaiparowits Basin Project.