Dracoraptor
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Dracoraptor Temporal range: Early Jurassic, 201–199 Ma |
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| Skeletal reconstructions | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Neotheropoda |
| Genus: |
†Dracoraptor Martill et. al, 2016 |
| Type species | |
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†Dracoraptor hanigani Martill et. al, 2016 |
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Dracoraptor is a genus of carnivorous neotheropod dinosaur from the Hettangian age of the Early Jurassic period of Wales.
Dracoraptor was a biped, much like its relatives. The fossil discovered in Wales is a 7-foot-long (2.1 metre) juvenile with a hip height of seventy centimetres; adults may have been ten feet (three meters) long.
In 2016, some distinguishing traits were established. The praemaxilla carries only three teeth, a basal trait. The jugal has a thin front branch running to the maxilla. The bony external nostril is large and has a thin branch beneath it. The pubic bone is obliquely directed to the front and is considerably longer than the ischium. The fourth tarsal has a process at the upper side.
In the front of the snout each praemaxilla embraces the front of a very large nostril. The skull bears three premaxillary teeth per side and at least seven maxillary teeth. The teeth are recurved or dagger-shaped. The edges of the tooth crown are serrated with six to eight denticles per millimetre. On the trailing edge these serrations run all the way to the root, on the leading edge they end at a higher position. Towards the tip of the tooth, these denticles become gradually somewhat smaller. The maxilla borders an antorbital fenestra with a shallow depression. The jugal is a slender element with a straight lower edge, a thin front branch overlapped by the rear branch of the maxilla and an ascending process towards the lacrimal that is thin but not pointed. The lacrimal is rectangular and pinched in the middle.
The neck vertebrae are elongated, opisthocoelous, i.e. with a vertebral body that is convex in front and concave at the rear, and crowned by low neural spines. Their undersides are slightly convex and their cross-sections are rectangular. At the front side the vertebral body is pierced by a pleurocoel, a depression with a pneumatic opening for the air sac to enter the inside of the vertebra. The tail vertebrae have two parallel keels at their undersides, which peter out towards the front. Their side processes are flat and broad.
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