Austroraptor
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Austroraptor Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70 Ma |
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| Reconstructed Austroraptor skeleton displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canadà. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Dromaeosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Unenlagiinae |
| Genus: |
†Austroraptor Novas, 2008 |
| Species: | †A. cabazai |
| Binomial name | |
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Austroraptor cabazai Novas, 2008 |
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Austroraptor (pron.:"AWE-stroh-RAP-ter") is an extinct genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now modern Argentina. Austroraptor was a medium sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, that could grow up to 5 m (16.4 ft) long. Its length makes Austroraptor one of the largest dromaeosaurids known, with only Achillobator, Dakotaraptor, and Utahraptor approaching or surpassing it in length. It is the largest dromaeosaur to be discovered in the Southern Hemisphere. Particularly notable about the taxon were its relatively short forearms, much shorter in proportion when compared to the majority of the members of its group.
Considered large for a dromaeosaur, Austroraptor cabazai measured around 5 metres (16.4 ft) in length from head to tail. In 2010, Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at at 6 metres, its weight at 300 kilograms. It is the largest dromaeosaur to be discovered in the Southern Hemisphere. The type specimen, labeled MML-195, consisted of a fragmentary skeleton including parts of the dinosaur's skull, the lower jaws, a few neck and torso vertebrae, some ribs, a humerus, and assorted bones from both legs. However little of the entire skeleton was found, what bones were available for analysis expressed some distinct characteristics that differentiate Austroraptor from other dromaeosaurs. A. cabazai's 80 centimeter-long skull was low and elongated, much more so than that of other dromaeosaurs. Several of its skull bones bore some resemblance to that of the smaller troodontid deinonychosaurs. The front limbs of this taxon were short for a dromaeosaur, with its humerus less than half the length of its femur. Among the Dromaeodauridae, only this genus, Tianyuraptor and Mahakala have similarly reduced forelimbs. The relative length of its arms has caused Austroraptor to be compared to another, more famous short-armed dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus.
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