NAME

Meaning - Megaraptor means “huge robber”
Pronounced - meg-a-RAP-tor
Named By - Fernando E. Novas
When Named - 1998
DIET

Carnivore (meat-eater)
SIZE

Length - 20-26 feet (6-8 m) long
Height - roughly 6 ft (2 m) tall at the hips
Weight - ?
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 90-84 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the Rio Neuquen Rock Formation, Sierra del Portezuelo, Province of Neuquen, Argentina, South America.
FOSSILS

Megaraptor remains were found in 1996 in Northwest Patagonia, Argentina, by paleontologist Fernando E. Novas. Only a few toe and leg bones have been found, including a sickle-claw 14 inch (35 cm) long.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Tetanura - advanced theropods with three fingers
  • Infraorder Coelurosauria - lightly-built fast-running predators with hollow bones and large brains
  • Family Deinonychosauria (dromaeosaurids and their ancestors) - sickle-clawed predators
  • Genus Megaraptor
  • Species M. namunhuaiquii (type species named by Novas, 1998)
INTERESTING FACTS

Megaraptor was a large, terrifying late Cretaceous predator with two enormous, sickle-like toe claws . It was a huge, lightly built, fast-moving, agile, bipedal (walked on two legs), bird-like dinosaur. It had a curved, flexible neck, and a big head with sharp, serrated teeth in very powerful jaws.

The second toe on each foot had a 14 inch (35 cm) sickle-like claw and the other toes had smaller claws. When alive, this claw would have been sheathed in a horny, keratinous material much like our fingernails, making the claw even bigger, longer and sharper.
LINKS

A detailed page on Megaraptor.
A Megaraptor coloring/information printout