Pronunciation: in-FUR-no-GALL-us
Meaning: Hell chicken
Author/s: Funston et al. (2026)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Montana, USA
Acta Ordinal: #1256
Infernogallus jamesi
(James' Hell Chicken)Etymology
Infernogallus is derived from the Latin "Inferno" (Hell) and
"gallus" (chicken), referring to the Hell Creek Formation where the holotype was found, and its small size and bird-like appearance.The species epithet, jamesi, honours James William Boyd, the paternal grandfather of author Clint Boyd, who sparked his interest in the field of palaeontology.
Funnily enough, this is not the first time the Hell Creek has yielded a "hell chicken" caenagnathid. In 2024, Atkins-Weltman et al. coined Eoneophron infernalis—Pharaoh's dawn chicken from Hell—derived from the Greek "eo" (dawn) and "Neophron" (the genus name of the Egyptian Vulture, aka "Pharaoh’s chicken") and "infernalis" (hell, referring to the Hell Creek Formation).
Discovery
The main specimen of Infernogallus was discovered in the Hell Creek Formation of Garfield County, Montana, USA, by C. Phipps in July 2011. This land is the
traditional territory and home of the Niitsítapi; Ochéthi Šakówin;
Apsáalooke; Tséstho'e; Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla; and Métis
peoples, who have been stewards of the area since time immemorial.The holotype (ROM VP 65050, housed at the Royal Ontario Museum, abbreviated to "ROM") is a partial skeleton including the skull, neck and back vertebrae, the right shoulder girdle and forelimb, and a partial pelvic girdle and right hindlimb. Skull bones ROM VP 64193 and ROM VP 64194 (collected together from the Hell Creek Formation of Garfield County, in the same channel complex that produced the holotype of Acheroraptor temertyorum), ROM VP 88690 (collected from the Hell Creek Formation near Faith, Meade County, South Dakota, and acquired by the ROM in 2015), and NDGS 4351 (found by Denver Fowler in locality NDGS L10006 of the Hell Creek Formation at "Mud Buttes", Bowman County, North Dakota, during a field trip for the Cretaceous and Beyond symposium held in Dickinson, North Dakota, in 2019) represent paratypes.
