MEGARAPTOR
a meat-eating megaraptoran theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: meg-a-RAP-tor
Meaning: Giant plunderer
Author/s: Novas,
et al. (
1998)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #434
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii
(Giant plunderer with a foot lance)Etymology
Megaraptor is derived from the Greek "megas" (giant, great, large) and the Latin "raptor" (plunderer, snatcher, robber or thief).
The
species epithet,
namunhuaiquii (nah-mun-WIE-kee-ie), is derived from the Mapuche Indian words "namun" (foot) and "huaiqui" (lance), referring to its enormous foot claw which, as it turns out, belonged to its hand.
Discovery
The first fossils of
Megaraptor were discovered in the
Portezuelo Formation (Río Neuquén Group) at Sierra del Portezuelo, Neuquén, Argentina.
The
holotype (MCF-PVPH- 79) includes the right ulna, half of metatarsal III from the right foot, and a huge sickle-like hand claw (initially identified as a raptor-style second toe killing claw) that was perhaps 40cm long in life.
A second specimen (MUCPv 341; consisting of a shoulder girdle, some vertebrae, a right pubis, a partial forearm and an almost complete right hand) was discovered along the North Coast of Los Barreales Lake during June 2002 by workers from the National University of Comahue.
A juvenile specimen from the same area was described in 2014.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Turonian-Coniacian
Age range: 94-86 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 8 meters
Est. max. hip height: 2.4 meters
Est. max. weight: 1.5 tons
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Novas FE (1998) "
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii, gen. et sp. nov., a large-clawed, Late Cretaceous theropod from Patagonia".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(1): 4-9. March 1998.
• Calvo JO, Porfiri JD, Veralli C, Novas FE and Poblete F (2004) "Phylogenetic status of
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii Novas based on a new specimen from Neuquén, Patagonia, Argentina".
Ameghiniana 4(4): 565-575. December 2004.
• Calvo JO, Porfiri JD, González-Riga BJ, and Kellner AW (2007) "A new Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem from Gondwana with the description of a new sauropod dinosaur".
Anais Academia Brasileira Ciencia, 79(3): 529-41.
• Currie PJ, Koppelhus EB and Shugar MA (2004) "
Feathered Dragons: Studies on the Transition from Dinosaurs to Birds".
• Benson RBJ, Carrano MT and Brusatte SL (2010) "A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic".
Naturwissenschaften 97(1):71-78
• Novas FE, Agnolín FL, Ezcurra MD, Canale JI and Porfiri JD (2012) "
Megaraptorans as members of an unexpected evolutionary radiation of tyrant-reptiles in Gondwana".
Ameghiniana(4) Supp.
• Porfiri JD, Novas FE, Calvo JO,
et al. (2014) "Juvenile specimen of
Megaraptor (Dinosauria, Theropoda) sheds light about tyrannosauroid radiation".
Cretaceous Research 51: 35-55.
• Yun C (2015) "
Comments on the juvenile Megaraptor specimen and systematic positions of megaraptoran theropods".
PeerJ PrePrints 3: e1051.
• Bell PR, Cau A, Fanti F and Smith ET (2015) "A large-clawed theropod (Dinosauria: Tetanurae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia and the Gondwanan origin of megaraptorid theropods".
Gondwana Research.
DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2015.08.004.
• Paulina-Carabajal A and Porfiri JD (2025) "Novel information on the braincase of
Megaraptor namunhuaiquii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) using X-ray tomography: pneumaticity, paleoneurology and their paleobiological implications".
Ameghiniana (advance online publication).
DOI: 10.5710/AMGH.18.10.2025.3657.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
MEGARAPTOR :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/MEGARAPTOR›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
