Saurornithoides, which is closely related to the North American genus Troodon, is another small theropod from Mongolia. Like Verociraptor, it has a long and narrow skull and an oversized sickle claw on its second toe.

The size of the brain was the largest among known dinosaurs, being six times larger than that of crocodiles. The enlarged middle ear cavity and other ear-related structures indicate that Saurornithoides had a highly-developed auditory system. It had eyes faced partly forward while most dinosaurs had eyes on the side of their head. This feature could have provided this animal binocular vision which may have allowed accurate judgement of distance. Some researchers suggested that some troodontids might have had good sight at low-light environment as well. These features could have made this animal an agile, succesful predator particularly good at hunting small, swiftly moving animals, like lizards, mammals and other dinosaur hatchlings. Possibly, it was a crepuscular or nocturnal carnivore.

Remains of troondits are very rare. No complete, or even nearly complete skeleton is known today. This specimen is a nearly complete skull of S. junior, where you can see many small, recurved, closely arranged teeth.

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