Pronunciation: sin-RAP-tohr
Meaning: Chinese Plunderer
Author/s: Currie and Zhao (1994)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Xinjiang, China
Discovery Chart Position: #392
Sinraptor dongi
Just like the harmless-shiny-apple-peddling serpent in biblical times, Sinraptor was a fibber; it isn't a dromaeosaurid, the sickle-clawed critters that are affectionately known as "raptors" but a "carnosaur", and although of Chinese origin it's most closely related to North American critters like Allosaurus. Sinraptor was a formidable hunter, built to terrorize the herbivores of Mid-Jurassic China. In fact, it was seemingly built to terrorize anything it could get its teeth into as fossilised remains suggest a second misdemeanor... cannibalism.
Okay, there's no real evidence of cannibalism. Experts suspect that the skull of one individual (IVPP 10600) which bears two dozen tooth wounds from what appears to be a member of the same species may be the result of "head biting" to establish a pack hierarchy, or perhaps the result of aggressive territorial behavior. But it's only a small step from biting to eating. Right? The same individual also sports a broken and healed rib so if these injuries were inflicted during an inter-species ruckuss they didn't necessarily end in a fatality.
A theropod tooth (IVPP V 15310) which was found within the remnants of a sauropod from the Shishugou Formation by Xing and Clark between 2001-2007 may belong to the contemporary Sinraptor, whose known adult representatives measure around eight meters from snout to tail-tip and sport teeth no longer than 72 mm. This solitary tooth, however, measures 102mm, and that's without the root, so if it does belong to Sinraptor it must have been a stupendously big individual. And if it doesn't belong to Sinraptor, who does it belong to?
Okay, there's no real evidence of cannibalism. Experts suspect that the skull of one individual (IVPP 10600) which bears two dozen tooth wounds from what appears to be a member of the same species may be the result of "head biting" to establish a pack hierarchy, or perhaps the result of aggressive territorial behavior. But it's only a small step from biting to eating. Right? The same individual also sports a broken and healed rib so if these injuries were inflicted during an inter-species ruckuss they didn't necessarily end in a fatality.
A theropod tooth (IVPP V 15310) which was found within the remnants of a sauropod from the Shishugou Formation by Xing and Clark between 2001-2007 may belong to the contemporary Sinraptor, whose known adult representatives measure around eight meters from snout to tail-tip and sport teeth no longer than 72 mm. This solitary tooth, however, measures 102mm, and that's without the root, so if it does belong to Sinraptor it must have been a stupendously big individual. And if it doesn't belong to Sinraptor, who does it belong to?
Etymology
Sinraptor is derived from the Greek "sinai" (Chinese) and the Latin "raptor" (plunderer, robber, snatcher or thief). The specific epithet, dongi, honours Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming.
Discovery
The first remains of Sinraptor were discovered in the upper Shishugou Formation, 25 km northeast of Jiangjunmiao, Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China, by a joint Chinese-Canadian expedition in 1987. The Holotype (IVPP 10600) is an almost complete skull and skeleton, minus the forelimbs and tail, of a young adult. The right side of its upper and lower jaw shows signs of bite trauma and one of its ribs is broken and healed.
Sinraptoridae
When Currie and Zhao coined Sinraptor in 1994, they nominated it to anchor a new family of allosaurid theropods called Sinraptoridae, which was as stable as any other dinosaurian family for the next 18 years. In "the phylogeny of Tetanurae" in 2012, however, Carrano, Benson and Sampson confirmed that Metriacanthosaurus parkeri (initially Megalosaurus parkeri, and later Altispinax parkeri) was in fact a "sinraptorid", which shook things up a bit. Because Greg Paul had already tied Metriacanthosaurus to the sub-family Metriacanthosaurinae in 1988, albeit in a popular book rather than a peer-reviewed scientific publication, the family level Sinraptoridae had to be renamed Metriacanthosauridae, and Sinraptor was unceremoniously booted from its post as family anchor despite boasting infinitely superior fossils. Damn the laws of priority.
