Pronunciation: MOO-roos-RAP-tuhr
Meaning: Wall plunderer
Author/s: Novas and Currie (2016)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #928
Murusraptor barrosaensis
(Wall plunderer from Barrosa)Etymology
Murusraptor is derived from the Latin "Murus" (wall), referring to its discovery in a canyon wall, and "raptor" (plunderer, snatcher, robber or thief).
The species epithet, barrosaensis, means "from Barrosa" (for the Sierra Barrosa Formation) in Latin.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A38EF1FD-729C-44E6-9BA2-B2EE8570B3EA.
Discovery
The remains of Murusraptor were discovered in the Sierra Barrosa Formation (Río Neuquén Subgroup, Neuquén Group), northeast of Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina, by S. Saldivia during the Argentinean-Canadian Dinosaur Project expedition of 2001.
The holotype (MCF-PVPH-411) includes much of the skull, thirty-one teeth, twelve vertebrae, ribs, a hand claw, a partial hip, the right shinbone, and an ankle, some of which had been bored into by Cretaceous beetles. Parts of the skeleton showed pathologic damage.
