Orkoraptor Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Artist's restoration | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | †Megaraptora |
Family: | †Megaraptoridae |
Genus: | †Orkoraptor Novas, Ezcurra & Lecuona, 2008 |
Species: | †O. burkei
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Binomial name | |
†Orkoraptor burkei Novas, Ezcurra & Lecuona, 2008
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Orkoraptor is a genus of medium-sized megaraptoran theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of Argentina. It is known from incomplete fossil remains including parts of the skull, teeth, tail vertebrae, and a partial tibia. The specialized teeth resemble those of some maniraptoriform theropods, namely the deinonychosaurs and compsognathids. This and other anatomical features led the authors who described it (Novas, Ezcurra, and Lecuona) to suggest that it was a maniraptoran coelurosaur. However, subsequent studies found it to be a megaraptoran.[1][2] Found in the Cerro Fortaleza Formation of Southern Patagonia, it is one of the southernmost carnivorous dinosaurs known from South America.[3]