''Citipes'' (meaning "fleet-footed") is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

caenagnathid Caenagnathidae is a family of bird-like maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of North America and Asia. They are a member of the Oviraptorosauria, and close relatives of the Oviraptoridae. Like other oviraptorosaurs, caenagnathids ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s known from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

(Campanian aged)

Dinosaur Park Dinosaur Park is a tourist attraction in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States. Dedicated on May 22, 1936, it contains seven dinosaur sculptures on a hill overlooking the city, created to capitalize on the tourists coming to the Black Hills to s ...

of southern

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. It lived about 76.9–75.8 million years ago. The specializations of the beak in ''Citipes'' and other caenagnathids suggest that they were herbivores. The type species, ''C. elegans'' had been previously placed within the genera ''

Chirostenotes ''Chirostenotes'' ( ; 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 discover ...

'', ''

Elmisaurus ''Elmisaurus'' (meaning "foot sole lizard") is an extinct genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. It was a theropod belonging to the Oviraptorosauria. Discovery In 1970, a paleontological Polish- ...

'', ''

Leptorhynchos The genus ''Leptorhynchos'' may refer to: * ''Leptorhynchos'' (dinosaur), a dinosaur genus in the family Caenagnathidae * ''Leptorhynchos'' (plant), a plant genus in the family Asteraceae {{Genus disambiguation ...

'' and ''

Ornithomimus ''Ornithomimus'' (; "bird mimic") is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. ''Ornithomimus'' was a swift bipedal theropod which fossil evidence indicates was covered in feathers, equippe ...

''.

History

The holotype material, found in 1926 at the Little Sandhill Creek, was originally thought to belong to an

ornithomimid Ornithomimidae (meaning " bird-mimics") is a family of theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to modern ostriches. Ornithomimids were fast, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs known mainly from the Late Cretaceous Period of ...

;

William Arthur Parks William Arthur Parks (11 December 1868 – 3 October 1936) was a Canadian geologist and paleontologist, following in the tradition of Lawrence Lambe. Parks was born in Hamilton, Ontario. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1892, Parks ...

in 1933 assigned it to a new species of ''Ornithomimus'': ''O. elegans''.Parks, W.A., (1933), "New species of dinosaurs and turtles from the Upper Cretaceous formations of Alberta", ''University of Toronto Studies, Geological Series'', 34: 1-33 When its oviraptorosaurian nature was revealed around 1989, it was then referred to ''Chirostenotes'' or ''Elmisaurus''. In 2013, Longrich ''et al.'' made it a second species of their new genus ''Leptorhynchos''. Finally, in 2020, Gregory Funston gave it a genus of its own, ''Citipes''; the name is a Latin word meaning "fleet-footed". The holotype is a tarsometatarsus. A pair of associated ilia and a sacral vertebra have been referred, as have a pair of fused dentaries, a tibia, and several isolated metatarsals. Osteohistological analysis shows that it was smaller than contemporary caenagnathids, and it is distinguished by fusion of the foot bones.

Classification

The phylogenetic analysis by Funston (2020) places ''Citipes'' as the sister taxon to ''Elmisaurus rarus'' within Caenagnathinae.

References

Caenagnathids Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Campanian genus first appearances Campanian genus extinctions Campanian life Paleontology in Alberta Fossil taxa described in 2020 {{Theropod-stub