Dracoraptor

Dracoraptor hanigani

Dracoraptor — scientific reconstruction

Dracoraptor (meaning "dragon thief") is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived during the Hettangian stage of the Early Jurassic Period of what is now Wales dated at about 201 million years ago. The fossil was first discovered in 2014 by Rob and Nick Hanigan and Sam Davies at the Blue Lias Formation on the South Wales coast. The genus name Dracoraptor is from Draco, referring to the Welsh dragon, and raptor, meaning robber, a commonly employed suffix for theropod dinosaurs, with the type species being Dracoraptor hanigani. It is one of the oldest known Jurassic dinosaurs and is the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales.

Family
Coelophysidae
Order
Saurischia
Period
Jurassic (201.3–199.5 Ma)
Diet
Carnivore
Length
0.7–1.0 m
Weight
2–5 kg
Type locality
Jurassic Coast, Wales, UK
Holotype
NMW 2015.5G.1
PBDB
txn:335179

Wikipedia text (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Back to the catalogue