Chirostenotes (/ˌkaɪroʊstɪˈnoʊtiːz/ KY-roh-stin-OH-teez; named from Greek 'narrow-handed') is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous (about 76.5–75 million years ago[1]) of Alberta, Canada.

Much later in the 1980s, it was known that Chirostenotes was a toothless oviraptorosaur, and the jaws were designated the holotype specimen of Richardoestesia gilmorei and are from an otherwise poorly known dinosaur, possibly a dromaeosaurid.

Feet were then found, specimen CMN 8538 (also from the Dinosaur Park Formation),[4] and in 1932 Charles Mortram Sternberg gave them the name Macrophalangia canadensis, meaning 'large toes from Canada'.

In 1936, its lower jaws, specimen CMN 8776, were found by Raymond Sternberg near Steveville and in 1940 he gave them the name Caenagnathus collinsi.

[9] In 1981 the announcement of Elmisaurus, an Asian form of which both hand and feet had been preserved, showed the soundness of Colbert and Russell's conjecture.

[16] In 2007 a cladistic study by Philip Senter cast doubt on the idea that all of the large Dinosaur Park Formation fossils belonged to the same animal.

[21]Microvenator celer Gigantoraptor erlianensis Hagryphus giganteus Epichirostenotes curriei Anzu wyliei Caenagnathus collinsi Caenagnathasia martinsoni Chirostenotes pergracilis Citipes elegans Apatoraptor pennatus Elmisaurus rarus Chirostenotes was probably an omnivore or herbivore, based on evidence from the beaks of related species like Anzu wyliei and Caenagnathus collinsi.

[22] In 2005 Phil Senter and J. Michael Parrish published a study on the hand function of Chirostenotes and found that its elongated second finger with its unusually straight claw may have been an adaptation to crevice probing.

They suggested that Chirostenotes may have fed on soft-bodied prey that could be impaled by the second claw, such as grubs, as well as unarmored amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

[24] In 2001, Bruce Rothschild and others published a study examining evidence for stress fractures and tendon avulsions in theropod dinosaurs and the implications for their behavior.