Utahraptor

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Utahraptor foot reconstruction, showing specialised claw
(from Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

Utahraptor ("Utah thief") is the largest known member of the theropod dinosaur family Dromaeosauridae, and dates from the upper Barremian stage of the Lower Cretaceous period (126 million years ago).

Contents

1 Discovery and species
2 Characteristics
3 Classification
4 In popular culture
5 External links

Discovery and species

James Kirkland, Rob Gaston, and Don Burge discovered Utahraptor in 1993 in Grand County, Utah, within the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type specimen is currently housed at the College of Eastern Utah, although Brigham Young University currently houses the largest collection of Utahraptor fossils.

The type species (and only known species of Utahraptor), Utahraptor ostrommaysorum, was named for the American paleontologist John Ostrom, from Yale University's Peabody Museum, and Chris Mays, of Dinamation International.

Characteristics

Like other dromaeosaurids, Utahraptor had a huge curved claw on the second toe that could grow to 23 cm (almost 9 inches) long. The animal may have grasped its prey with its forelimbs while kicking with its hindlimbs. Recents tests on reconstructions of the smaller species Velociraptor suggest that claws of this type were used for stabbing, not slashing. Up to 7 meters (20 feet) long, 2.5 meters (8 feet) tall and 700 kg (1500lbs) in weight, Utahraptor would have been a formidable predator (Kirkland et al. 1993).

Classification

It is thought that Utahraptor may be closely related to the much smaller Dromaeosaurus (Kirkland et al. 1993) and the giant Mongolian dromaeosaurid Achillobator.

A more detailed classification:

Class Sauropsida (reptiles and bird-like reptiles)
* Superorder Dinosauria
** Order Saurischia ("lizard hipped" dinosaurs)
*** Suborder Theropoda (bipedal carnivores)
**** Clade Tetanurae (advanced theropods)
***** Infraorder Coelurosauria (birds and bird-like dinosaurs)
****** Clade Aviphilopluma (dinosaurs and birds with feathers)
******* Clade Maniraptora ("birds" with modern feathers and wings)
******** Clade Deinonychosauria (switchblade-like claws)
********* Family Dromaeosauridae (the "raptors")
********** Genus Utahraptor

In popular culture

Utahraptor was the subject of the book Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker.
Dinosaur Comics contains an Utahraptor as a main character.
Utahraptor is featured in BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs' 4th Episode Giants of the Skies
The game Jurassic Park Sega CD, featuring the afforementioned Robert Bakker, considers the "Velociraptor" in the game to be a Utahraptor.

External links

[Dinopedia Entry]

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