Sinraptor

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Sinraptor by Cheung Chung Tat

Sinraptor is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic.

Sinraptor is a dinosaur which lived approximately 150 million years ago. It was first discovered by a joint Chinese and Canadian expedition in the Shishugou Formation of China in 1987. In 1994, it was named by Philip J. Currie and Xian Zhao, who gave it the name Sinraptor because it means “Chinese raptor”. The specific name dongi honours Dong Zhiming. Despite its name, Sinraptor is not related to dromaeosaurids (often nicknamed “raptors”) like Velociraptor.

This dinosaur was around 25 feet long, 10 feet tall and weighed approximately 2000 pounds or 1 ton. It was probably a fierce—albeit small—carnivore that probably hunted very well. Since many of the herbivores in this part of the world were giant, they probably hunted the juvenile members of them. Perhaps separating these young sauropods from their parents to hunt them. However, it probably also had to contend with other larger predators who may have given it some grief during the
course of its life.

Sinraptor dongi, Royal Tyrrell Museum

An interesting fact about Sinraptor is that it isn’t a true raptor. Sure, it was bipedal like a raptor but that is where the similarities end. It would be millions of years after the death of this dinosaur before raptors would come on the scene.

Paleontologists actually think that the Sinraptor was an Allosaur.

The skeleton of Sinraptor hepingensis (formerly referred to Yangchuanosaurus) is on display at the Zigong Dinosaur Museum, Zigong, China.

Source: www.Wikipedia.org