Saurornitholestes ("lizard-bird thief") is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada (Alberta) and the United States (Montana, New Mexico, Alabama, and South Carolina).

The specific name honours Wann Langston, Jr.[3] The holotype specimen, TMP 1974.10.5, was uncovered in a layer of the Dinosaur Park Formation dating to the late Campanian.

Similar teeth are found in younger deposits, dated to around 70 to 69 million years ago,[5] but whether they represent S. langstoni or a different, related species is unknown.

[6] Fragmentary fossils of Saurornitholestes are also known from the eastern half of North America, which formed the landmass of Appalachia during the Late Cretaceous.

In 2015, Schwimmer et al. identified the existence of Saurornitholestes langstoni from the Coachman and Donoho Creek formations of South Carolina based on diagnostic teeth and a pedal ungual.

[9] After examining the skull of that specimen, Currie and Evans announced in 2019 that the Zapsalis teeth from the Dinosaur Park Formation represented the second premaxillary tooth of S.

[10] In 2006, Robert Sullivan named and described a second nominal species, Saurornitholestes robustus, based on holotype SMP VP-1955, a left frontal.

Boreonykus certekorum Dromaeosaurus albertensis Deinonychus antirrhopus Adasaurus mongoliensis Achillobator giganticus Utahraptor ostrommaysi Acheroraptor termeryorum Velociraptor mongoliensis Velociraptor osmolskae Linheraptor exquisitus Tsaagan mangas Saurornitholestes sullivani is thought to have had a keen sense of smell, due to its skull suggesting an unusually large olfactory bulb.

This feeding strategy and ability to handle struggling prey was also a feature that these two dromaeosaurids shared with tyrannosaurids such as Gorgosaurus, which was also analyzed in said study alongside these smaller theropods.

[21] 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.

[25] The shape of the preserved serrations are too different from those of Saurornitholestes for the marks to be the result of injuries incurred during intraspecific face biting behaviors.

[26] Although a specific identification cannot be made, the most likely perpetrator would be a juvenile individual of one of the Dinosaur Park Formation's tyrannosaurids, like Gorgosaurus, or Daspletosaurus.

Alberta, the location of Saurornitholestes langstoni, had a habitat similar to the United States Middle West being plains[28] and floodplain swamps.