Pronunciation: mar-thuh-RAP-tuhr
Meaning: Martha Hayden's Plunderer
Author/s: Senter et al. (2012)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Utah, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #814
Martharaptor greenriverensis
Martharaptor adds to the already well-represented dinosaurian fauna of the Yellow Cat Member of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation. It adds to the known diversity of Therizinosauroidea too, although Phil Senter and associates were far from brimming with confidence when they officially assigned it there on the 29th of August, 2012.
The currently known material of Martharaptor, albeit a tad meagre, has no bones in common with the area's troodontid Geminiraptor, the dromaeosaurids Utahraptor, Yurgovuchia, or the as yet unnamed "Yellow Cat" critters and, in fact, lacks character states that are present in troodontids and dromaeosaurids in general. What it does have, are bucketloads of character states typical of therizinosauroids, so a therizinosauroid it is, until or unless further remains are discovered to prove otherwise.
Therizinosauroids are affectionately referred to as "sloth dinosaurs" by some experts because of their broad hips, long neck, small head, pot belly, and long, scythe-like hand claws. Although theropods — the saurischian dinosaurs that are renowned for their fondness of flesh — they're vegetarian, or at least trying to be, and some of them are upwards of nine meters in length and as heavy as an elephant, so they weren't hanging out in trees like modern sloths.
The currently known material of Martharaptor, albeit a tad meagre, has no bones in common with the area's troodontid Geminiraptor, the dromaeosaurids Utahraptor, Yurgovuchia, or the as yet unnamed "Yellow Cat" critters and, in fact, lacks character states that are present in troodontids and dromaeosaurids in general. What it does have, are bucketloads of character states typical of therizinosauroids, so a therizinosauroid it is, until or unless further remains are discovered to prove otherwise.
Therizinosauroids are affectionately referred to as "sloth dinosaurs" by some experts because of their broad hips, long neck, small head, pot belly, and long, scythe-like hand claws. Although theropods — the saurischian dinosaurs that are renowned for their fondness of flesh — they're vegetarian, or at least trying to be, and some of them are upwards of nine meters in length and as heavy as an elephant, so they weren't hanging out in trees like modern sloths.
(Martha Hayden's Green River Plunderer)
Etymology
Martharaptor is derived from "Martha" (for Martha Hayden, who co-discovered the site with Cari Corbett and has been assistant to three successive Utah state paleontologists over a quarter century), and the Latin "raptor" (plunderer, robber, snatcher or thief).
The species epithet, greenriverensis, means "from Green River" in Latin and refers to the city close to where its remains were discovered.
Discovery
The remains of Martharaptor were discovered at the Hayden-Corbett Site in the Yellow Cat Member of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation, 8 miles southeast of Green River City, Emery County, Utah, in an area less than two meters square.The holotype (UMNH VP 21400, housed in The Natural History Museum of Utah at Salt Lake City) is a fragmentary skeleton, including bits of vertebrae, a shoulder blade, forelimb and hindlimb bones, and a hip bone (ischium).
