NEUQUENRAPTOR
a meat-eating unenlagiine theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: NEW-kin-RAP-tuhr
Meaning: Neuquen plunderer
Author/s: Novas and Pol (
2005)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #571
Neuquenraptor argentinus
(Neuquén plunderer of Argentina)Etymology
Neuquenraptor is derived from "Neuquén" (the Argentinian province where its remains were found) and the Latin "raptor" (plunderer, snatcher, robber or thief).
The
species epithet,
argentinus, refers to its discovery in Argentina.
Discovery
The remains of
Neuquenraptor were discovered at Sierra del Portezuelo in the Portezuelo Formation (Neuquén Group) near Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province, Argentina, rather fortuitously as Pablo Puerta and Fernando Novas were digging up a titanosaur ribcage in 1996.
The
holotype (MCF PVPH 77) includes some fragments of neck vertebrae, ribs, tail chevrons, a left radius (forearm bone), the right thigh and a piece of right shin, and most of the left foot. Another, smaller left foot (MUCPv-1163) was found at Baal Quarry on the north coast of Barreales Lake by Diego Rosales in 2005. It was referred to
Neuquensaurus in 2007 by Juan Porfiri, but by 2011 he realised he had erred, and named it
Pamparaptor micros.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Turonian-Coniacian
Age range: 94-86 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Carnivore
References
• Novas FE, Cladera G and Puerta P (1996) "New theropods from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia".
Abstracts of papers. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 16(sup003): 1-80. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.1996.10011371.
• Novas FE and Puertat PF (1997) "New Evidence Concerning Avian Origins from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia". Nature. 387(6631): 390–392.
DOI: 10.1038/387390a0.
• Novas FE (1997) "South American Dinosaurs". In Currie and Padian (eds.) "
Encyclopedia of dinosaurs". ["
Araucanoraptor argentinus"]
• Novas FE, Apesteguia S, Pol D and Cambiaso AV (1999) "Un probable troodontido (Theropoda-Coelurosauria) del Cretacico Tardio de Patagonia" [
A probable troodontid (Theropoda-Coelurosauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia].
Ameghiniana, 36(4): 17. [English translation by S. Apesteguía.]
• Novas FE and Pol D (2005) "
New Evidence on Deinonychosaurian Dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia".
Nature, 433(7028): 858-861.
• Makovicky PJ, Apesteguía S and Agnolín FL (2005) "
The Earliest Dromaeosaurid Theropod from South America".
Nature, 437(7061): 1007-1011.
• Porfiri JD, Calvo, dos Santos and Valieri (2007) "
New record of Neuquenraptor (Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia".
Ameghiniana, 44(S), 34R.
• Porfiri JD, Calvo JO and dos Santos D (2011)
"A new small deinonychosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia".
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 83(1): 109-116. DOI: 10.1590/S0001-37652011000100007.
• Gianechini FA and Apesteguia S (2011) "Unenlagiinae revisited: dromaeosaurid theropods from South América".
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 83(1): 163-95.
• Egli FB, Rolando AMA, Agnolín FL, and Novas FE (2017)
"
Osteology of the unenlagiid theropod Neuquenraptor argentinus from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia".
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 62(3): 549-562.
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"
NEUQUENRAPTOR :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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