A dromaeosaurid-like claw from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France

Dromaeosaurids are poorly known in Europe and their fossil records are mostly postcranial remains. To date, the French faunal records of the family Dromaeosauridae include two taxa: Pyroraptor olympius and Variraptor mechinorum. Nevertheless, their taxonomic validity and phylogenetic relationships as dromaeosaurids are controversial. Here, we report a new record of a dromaeosaurid-like pedal ungual from the ‘Grès à Reptiles’ Formation (Campanian-Maastrichtian) of the Upper Cretaceous of southern France. The French specimen was assigned to cf. Dromaeosauridae on the basis of an extensive qualitative analysis. The new specimen has a strongly curved morphology with a tall, narrow cross-section, which is one of the most characteristic anatomical features of the family. Direct comparison reveals that the claw is similar to that of Pyroraptor olympius (MNHN BO001) from a stratigraphically correlated locality.