Utahraptor

The first specimens of Utahraptor were found in 1975 by Jim Jensen in the Dalton Wells Quarry in east-central Utah, near the town of Moab, but did not receive much attention. After a find of a large foot-claw by Carl Limone in October 1991, James Kirkland, Robert Gaston, and Donald Burge uncovered further remains of Utahraptor in 1991 in the Gaston Quarry in Grand County, Utah, within the Yellow Cat and Poison Strip members of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The holotype, CEU 184v.86, is currently housed at the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, although Brigham Young University, the depository of Jensen's finds, currently houses the largest collection of Utahraptor fossils.[citation needed]

The type species, Utahraptor ostrommaysi, was named by Kirkland, Gaston, and Burge in June 1993. The genus name Utahraptor is in reference to Utah, where the remains were found. The specific name, ostrommaysi, is in honour to John Ostrom for his investigations on Deinonychus and its bird relationships, and Chris Mays, who helped in the research of Utahraptor by founding Dinamation. Earlier, it had been intended to name the species "U. spielbergi" after film director Steven Spielberg, in exchange for funding paleontological research, but no agreement could be reached on the amount of financial assistance.

Pedal ungual II of CEU 184v.294 at BYU

Thiago Vernaschi V. Costa and David Normand in 2019 criticized the use of the species name U. ostrommaysorum since it has no clear justification or explanation. Although this spelling has been largely used by other authors, the genus Utahraptor was originally coined with the type species U. ostrommaysi and given that the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature offers no provision for forming a genitive form from two persons with different names, Costa and Normand conclude that the original spelling ostrommaysi has to be regarded as an arbitrary combination of letters and not a correctly formed genitive form. Under this reasoning, ostrommaysorum has no valid use and the original spelling ostrommaysi does not need an emendation. Other alternative and also invalid spellings were used in scientific literature, such as ostromaysi, ostromaysorum, ostromayssorum, ostromayorum and ostrommaysori.