Megaraptor

Megaraptor was a large, formidable predatory theropod that inhabited the warm river basins of Patagonia during the Late Cretaceous, around 90 million years ago. Reaching lengths between eight and nine metres and weighing over one tonne, it was an athletic apex hunter. When first described, its massive, thirty-centimetre curved claw was thought to be an oversized foot claw belonging to a giant dromaeosaur. Subsequent complete discoveries revealed that this claw actually sat on the first digit of its hands. The forelimbs of Megaraptor were unusually robust and mobile, allowing it to grapple and disembowel prey while its slender, elongated skull snapped at soft tissue. Its phylogenetic placement was long debated, but it is now recognised as the namesake of the Megaraptoridae, an enigmatic lineage of coelurosaurs with possible tyrannosauroid affinities.

Its enormous thirty-centimetre curved claw was originally mistaken for a dromaeosaurid sickle foot claw instead of a thumb claw.

Where and when

Megaraptor lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 91 to 88 million years ago (Turonian-Coniacian age). Its remains come from Argentina, in the Portezuelo Formation.

The numbers

Length 8.5 m (estimates run from 8 to 9 m). Mass about 1.2 t. Hip height about 2.4 m. That is 5 human-lengths, or 0.76 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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