Pronunciation: tree-uh-rar-chun-kuss
Meaning: Captain Hook
Author/s: Fowler et al. (2020)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Montana, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #1024
Trierarchuncus prairiensis
(Captain hook from the prairie)Etymology
Trierarchuncus is derived from "trierarch" (the captain of a "trireme": an ancient Greek warship with three banks of oars) and the Latin "uncus" (hook), referring to its curved thumb claws.
The species epithet, prairiensis, is derived from "prairie" (for the American Prairie Reserve where it was found) and the Latin "ensis" (from).
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:694CA1ED-39E1-4B3F-8A4F-CC52269E8DE4.
Discovery
The type specimen of Trierarchuncus was discovered at locality "MSHC4" in the Hell Creek Formation, south of Ft. Peck reservoir, near Jordan, Garfield County, Montana, by Rebecca Schaff in 2006.
The holotype (MOR 6622) is a large thumb claw. Referred material from the same area includes MOR 3098 (a small thumb claw, collected in 2010 by D. Fowler at "Ultramega Microsite"), MOR 2920 (a partial metatarsal III, collected in 2000 by Nathan Mhyrvold from "Bone Basin"), and UCMP 154584 (a pubis and partial ischium of the pelvis, collected in 1980 by a UCMP field crew from "Sandstone Basin" aka "the doldrums", and first described by Hutchinson and Chiappe in 1998). Material from the Hell Creek Formation, north of Ft. Peck reservoir, near Glasgow, Valley County, Montana, referred to Alvarezsauria sp., likely pertains to Trierarchuncus, including BDM 001 (a medium-sized thumb claw, collected in 2015 by J. Wilson from "Mono Claw Microsite") and BDM 002 (a radius bone from the lower arm, collected in 2015 by D. Fowler and W. Fowler at "Lousy Microsite"). Two more thumb claws (MOR 10889, and DDM 1682.32—found and collected by Carla Krone and Eric Goldfarb) from the Hell Creek Formation were assigned to Trierarchuncus by Freimuth and Wilson in 2021. All five known thumb claws are of different sizes and assumed to represent a growrh series, with features changing slightly on the journey to maturity.
