Post by Barry the Baryonyx on Jun 25, 2007 16:01:52 GMT -5
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii
Megaraptor ("giant thief") was once thought to be the largest
dromaeosaur ever found, but is now known to be a carnosaur related to Allosaurus. It lived in Late Cretaceous times in the Patagonian region of Argentina. It was a contemporary of Giganotosaurus, one of largest carnivorous dinosaurs of all time.
Identification
Megaraptor was initially described as a giant dromaeosaur (Novas, 1998). It was known primarily from a single claw, about 1ft long, that resembled the sickle-shaped foot claw of dromaeosaurids. The discovery of a complete front limb, however, showed that this giant claw actually came from the first finger of a carnosaur's hand (Calvo et al., 2004). The hand is still quite different from other carnosaurs, so it is not clear whether Megaraptor is an allosaurid, a carcharodontosaurid, a megalosauroid, or something else entirely.
It should be noted that, when first discovered and prior to publication, the spinosaurid Baryonyx was also reported to be a dromaeosaur, again based on a large hand claw.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Carnosauria
Superfamily: Allosauroidea
Genus: Megaraptor
Species: M. namunhaiquii
Binomial name
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii
Megaraptor ("giant thief") was once thought to be the largest
dromaeosaur ever found, but is now known to be a carnosaur related to Allosaurus. It lived in Late Cretaceous times in the Patagonian region of Argentina. It was a contemporary of Giganotosaurus, one of largest carnivorous dinosaurs of all time.
Identification
Megaraptor was initially described as a giant dromaeosaur (Novas, 1998). It was known primarily from a single claw, about 1ft long, that resembled the sickle-shaped foot claw of dromaeosaurids. The discovery of a complete front limb, however, showed that this giant claw actually came from the first finger of a carnosaur's hand (Calvo et al., 2004). The hand is still quite different from other carnosaurs, so it is not clear whether Megaraptor is an allosaurid, a carcharodontosaurid, a megalosauroid, or something else entirely.
It should be noted that, when first discovered and prior to publication, the spinosaurid Baryonyx was also reported to be a dromaeosaur, again based on a large hand claw.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Carnosauria
Superfamily: Allosauroidea
Genus: Megaraptor
Species: M. namunhaiquii
Binomial name
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii
Is it just us?