Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia - Theropoda
Time Period: Late Triassic
Location: Argentina
Diet: Omnivore
Eoraptor lived in what is modern-day Argentina. It had a slender body that reached about three feet in length and weighed around twenty pounds. Its skull was lightly built and similar to those of the later coelophysoids. Like all dinosaurs it had a digitigrade stance, walking upright on its toes, and it stood upright on its hind legs. All of its long bones had hollow shafts and hollow central vertebrae. It had five digits on each ‘hand,’ the three longest of which ended in large claws presumably used to handle prey. It had heterodont teeth (meaning it had multiple types of teeth), so it’s speculated that it was omnivorous. It had serrated, recurved teeth in its upper jaws (like those of later theropods) and leaf-shaped teeth in the lower jaw (like those of prosauropods). It was a fast runner and could use its claws and teeth to tear prey apart. Unlike later theropods, it lacked a sliding joint at the articulation of the lower jaw that would enable it to hold large prey. Its remains have been found in what was once a volcanically-active floodplain covered by forests with a warm and humid climate subject to monsoons. It lived among ferns, horsetails, and giant conifers of the highland forests that stretched along the banks of rivers. It was likely preyed upon by another (and much larger) early theropod, Herrerasaurus. Eoraptor would’ve shared its environment with Carnian therapsids, rauisuchians, and archosaurs. Dinosaurs, of which Eoraptor was a part, represent only six percent of the fauna found in Argentina. It certainly wasn’t the dominant creature.
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