Sinraptor

Type Species: Sinraptor dongi

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Theropoda - Carnosauria - Allosauroidea – Metriacanthosauridae – Metriacanthosaurinae

Time Period: Late Jurassic

Location: China

Diet: Carnivore   

This ‘Chinese raptor’ lived in the Oxfordian stage of Late Jurassic China. Though the ‘raptor’ in its name implies it belonged to the dromaeosaurs (known colloquially as ‘raptors’), it’s actually a carnosaur more closely related to Allosaurus. Two species have been discovered. Sinraptor stood nearly ten feet tall and reached twenty-five feet long snout-to-tail. One specimen’s skull showed evidence of possibly mortal wounds (though they may also have been due to postmortem scavenging); curving tooth drags and gouges, shallow circular punctures, and one fully penetrating puncture. One of its ribs was broken but healed, indicating an earlier injury that had healed before its death. Though not the largest predator in its environment, Sinraptor was nevertheless a theropod to be feared (it was outranked only by Yangchuanosaurus). Adult Sinraptors likely preyed upon medium-sized dinosaurs such as stegosaurs and juvenile sauropods, and it may have also hunted smaller theropods such as the herbivorous Limusaurus.