Troodon

dinosaur · clever · Cretaceous · North America

Super smart dinosaur. Troodon had one of the biggest brains compared to its body size of any dinosaur, which means it was likely one of the cleverest dinosaurs that ever lived.

Bird-like hunter. Troodon was a small theropod dinosaur that walked on two legs and had feathers, making it look more like a big intelligent bird than a typical scary dinosaur.

Ancient time period. Troodon lived during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, which was between about 84 and 72 million years ago.

Found in Montana. The first Troodon fossil was discovered in Montana in October 1855, making it one of the very first dinosaurs ever found in North America.

Mistaken identity. When scientists first found Troodon bones in 1855, they thought they belonged to a lizard, but it wasn't until 1877 that they realized it was actually a dinosaur.