Dineobellator (meaning Diné warrior, pronounced /dɪˌneɪoʊbəˈleɪtər/) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period 68 million years ago.
[2] The holotype remains are designated SMP VP-2430 and were first recovered in 2008 from the Ojo Alamo Formation by Robert M. Sullivan, Steven E. Jasinski and James Nikas.
Below is the phylogenetic tree found by the authors:[2] Saurornitholestes Atrociraptor Dakotaraptor Dromaeosaurus Boreonykus Bayan Shireh dromaeosaurid Deinonychus Adasaurus Utahraptor Achillobator Acheroraptor Velociraptor mongoliensis Velociraptor osmolskae Dineobellator Tsaagan Linheraptor However, two years later, Jasinski et al. 2022 re-examined the holotype, and found Dineobellator to be a member of Eudromaeosauria, but not within Velociraptorinae, Saurornitholestinae and Dromaeosaurinae.
[2] Dineobellator is part of the Ojo Alamo Formation fauna in southern Laramidia, at the time a lush floodplain dominated by wetlands and riparian gymnosperm forests.
It lived among alongside large dinosaurs like ceratopsians (Ojoceratops and Torosaurus), hadrosaurs (Edmontosaurus and Kritosaurus), two types of ankylosaur (including nodosaurid Glyptodontopelta), and the titanosaur Alamosaurus; smaller herbivorous and omnivorous dinosaurs in the ecosystem as of yet not known from any remains likely included thescelosaurine ornithopods like Thescelosaurus and pachycephalosaurs like Pachycephalosaurus.