Austroraptor

• South America ( Patagonia)

Austro Raptor is a genus theropod dinosaur from the group of Dromaeosauridae that lived during the Late Cretaceous in South America. Novas et al. described Austro Raptor 2008 after a fragmentary skeleton from the Argentine province of Rio Negro. This province is famous for its numerous fossils of herbivorous dinosaurs. It has been scientifically described so far only the type species A. cabazai.

The genus name derives from the Latin austral "south " and raptor " thief " from. The specific epithet honors the type species Alberto Cabaza, the founder of the Museo Municipal de Lamarque.

Features

Obtain Fossil parts of the skull, some neck and back vertebrae, ribs, a humerus (humerus ) and some bones of the hind legs. The elongated skull was about 80 inches long, the forearms were extremely short. The jaw was covered with small, conical and ungesägten teeth. Austro Raptor was unusually large for a dromaeosaurid and probably reached a length of five meters. He is the biggest representative found in the southern hemisphere, this dinosaur group.

System

Austro Raptor is classified in the Unenlagiinae, a group birdlike dinosaurs. Its closest relatives are Unenlagia and Rahonavis.

Documents

• FE Novas, D. Pol, JI Canale, JD Porphyrius, JO Calvo: A bizarre Cretaceous theropod dinosaur from Patagonia and the evolution of Gondwanan dromaeosaurids. In: Proc. R. Soc. B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1554.