Fossils of a carnivorous dinosaur was unearthed in Argentina and are shedding new light on an intriguing group of predators. Apparently, these meat-eating dinosaurs aren't only predators but viscous and loved slashing their victims to death with sickle-shaped hand claws as to chomp them to death.
The new creature is called Murusraptor barrosaensis. It lived about 80 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, measured about 21 feet (6.5 meters) long and was a pursuit hunter more lightly built than some other predatory dinosaurs.
The Murusraptor, which means "thief from the wall," was a member of a group of meat-eaters called megaraptors, meaning "giant thieves."
The Murusraptor specimen preserved the complete posterior half of the skull, several vertebrae and pelvis bones, unveiling unknown areas of the skeleton of this group. Among the megaraptor remains, this is the only one that has its braincase complete.
Megaraptors were medium-sized predators compared to some of Argentina's giant Cretaceous meat-eaters, like the roughly 41-foot-long (12.5 meters) Giganotosaurus, and likely hunted in a different way. Giganotosaurus, which lived about 17 million years before Murusraptor, had a massively built skull and large teeth for killing prey, along with puny arms that would have done little good in hunting.
Megaraptors have strong arms that wielded sickle-like claws that could inflict fatal wounds on prey, along with a more lightly built skull and jaws studded with smaller teeth. They also had air-filled, bird-like bones.
The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Other scientists last week announced the discovery of fossils of another Argentine carnivorous dinosaur, called Gualicho, a bit larger than Murusraptor that had feeble arms, akin in size to a human child's.
Source: Reuters
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