Fukuiraptor

Fukuiraptor Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 128 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Artist's impression
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
(unranked):	Megaraptora
Genus:	Fukuiraptor Azuma & Currie, 2000
Species
F. kitadaniensis Azuma & Currie, 2000 (type)

Fukuiraptor ("thief of Fukui") was a medium-sized carnivore of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) that lived in what is now Japan. Scientists first thought it was a member of the Dromaeosauridae, but after studying the fossils they then believed it was related to Allosaurus (which is classed in a different family) in the family Neovenatoridae. However, more recently, another analysis has proposed that all megaraptorans are actually tyrannosauroids, which would reclassify Fukuiraptor as a tyrannosauroid coelurosaur. Recent cladistic analysis of the theropod Gualicho has suggested that Fukuiraptor and other megaraptorans are either allosauroids, or non-tyrannosauroid basal coelurosaurs.

The type specimen is the skeleton of an individual about 4.2 metres long. It is thought that this specimen was not mature and an adult may have been larger. However, the other individuals recovered from the same locality are all juveniles that were smaller than the holotype (Currie & Azuma, 2006), in the smallest case less than a quarter of the holotype's size.