Sinraptor

Sinraptor was a large carnivorous dinosaur that inhabited ancient floodplains and semi-arid basins of northwestern China during the Late Jurassic epoch, about 160 million years ago. Despite the name Sinraptor, meaning Chinese robber, it was not closely related to the sickle-clawed dromaeosaurs, but was instead an allosauroid carnosaur. Reaching roughly seven and a half metres in body length, it was an imposing hunter with a deep skull, large cranial openings to reduce weight, and sharp serrated teeth. It lived in an ecologically diverse environment preserved within the famous Shishugou Formation, where it preyed upon sauropods like Mamenchisaurus and smaller plant-eaters such as Yinlong. Known from an exceptionally well-preserved and nearly complete skeleton, Sinraptor provides crucial insights into how large carnosaurs radiated across Asia while their allosaurid cousins thrived in North America.

Despite its name, Sinraptor was not a dromaeosaurid raptor but an allosauroid carnosaur over seven metres long.

Where and when

Sinraptor lived in the Middle Jurassic, from 163.5 to 157.3 million years ago (Oxfordian age). Its remains come from China, in the Shishugou Formation.

The numbers

Length 7.4 m (estimates run from 7.2 to 7.6 m). Mass about 1.2 t. Hip height about 2.3 m. That is 4.4 human-lengths, or 0.66 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

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