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Dracoraptor
Dracoraptor (meaning "dragon thief") is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived during the Hettangian stage of the Early Jurassic Period of what is now Wales dated at about 201 million years ago. The fossil was first discovered in 2014 by Rob and Nick Hanigan and Sam Davies at the Blue Lias Formation on the South Wales coast. The genus name Dracoraptor is from Draco, referring to the Welsh dragon, and raptor, meaning robber, a commonly employed suffix for theropod dinosaurs, with the type species being Dracoraptor hanigani. It is one of the oldest known Jurassic dinosaurs and is the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales.
The first Dracoraptor fossils were discovered in 2014 near the Welsh town of Penarth. In March 2014, brothers and amateur palaeontologists Nick and Rob Hanigan, while searching for ichthyosaur remains at Lavernock Point, a large cape south of Cardiff, found stone plates containing dinosaur fossils which had fallen off the 7-metre (23 ft) high cliff face. Judith Adams and Philip Manning of the University of Manchester took X-ray pictures and CAT-scans of the fossils. The remains were donated to Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, and prepared by Craig Chivers and Gary Blackwell. In 2015, student Sam Davies found additional rock plates at the dig site which contained foot bones assigned to Dracoraptor.
The type species, Dracoraptor hanigani, was named and described in 2016 by British palaeontologists David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells, and John Nudds. The generic name combines the Latin draco, "dragon", a reference to the Welsh Dragon, with raptor, "robber". The specific name honours Nick and Rob Hanigan as discoverers.
The holotype, NMW 2015.5G.1–2015.5G.11, was discovered in the lower Bull Cliff Member of the Blue Lias Formation in the United Kingdom. More precisely, it came from a layer just metres below the first occurrence of Jurassic ammonite Psiloceras and above the Paper Shales that represent the lithological Triassic-Jurassic boundary, precisely dating the dinosaur to the earliest Hettangian stage, 201.3 million years ago ± 0.2 million years.
The holotype consists of a partial skeleton with skull. It contains both praemaxilla (frontmost upper jaw bones), both maxillae (main upper jaw bone), teeth, a lacrimal, a jugal, a postorbital, a squamosal, a supraoccipital, parts of the lower jaws, a possible hyoid, two cervical (neck) vertebrae (backbones), cervical ribs, rear dorsal (back) vertebrae, at least five front caudal (tail) vertebrae, chevrons, ribs, gastralia (or "belly ribs"), the lower parts of a left forelimb, a furcula (wishbone), both pubic bones, a left ischium (lower and rearmost hip bone), a right femur, a tibia (shin bone), the upper part of a fibula (calf bone), a left astragalus (ankle bone), three tarsals, and three metatarsals. About 40% of the skeleton is presented. Dracoraptor is thus the most complete Mesozoic non-bird theropod dinosaur known from Wales.
Dracoraptor was a biped, much like its relatives. The fossil discovered in Wales is a 2.1-metre (6.9 ft) juvenile with a hip height of 70 centimetres (28 in); adults may have been 3 m (9.8 ft) long.[citation needed]
In 2016, 18 autapomorphies (distinguishing traits) were established for Dracoraptor. The majority of these autapomorphies were convergent traits and had originated from other neotheropods. The Dracoraptor also possesses some plesiomorphic traits from ancestral species. The praemaxillae carried only three teeth, a basal trait. The jugal had a thin front branch running to the maxilla. The bony external nostril is large and had a thin branch beneath it. The pubic bone is obliquely directed to the front and is considerably longer than the ischium. The fourth tarsal had a process at the upper side.
In the front of the snout each praemaxilla embraces the front of a very large nostril. The skull bears three praemaxillary teeth per side and at least seven maxillary teeth. The teeth are recurved or dagger-shaped. The edges of the tooth crown are serrated with six to eight denticles per millimetre (0.03 in). On the trailing edge these serrations run all the way to the root, on the leading edge they end at a higher position. Towards the tip of the tooth, these denticles become gradually somewhat smaller. The maxilla borders an antorbital fenestra with a shallow depression. The jugal is a slender element with a straight lower edge, a thin front branch overlapped by the rear branch of the maxilla and an ascending process towards the lacrimal that is thin but not pointed. The lacrimal is rectangular and pinched in the middle.
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Dracoraptor
Dracoraptor (meaning "dragon thief") is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived during the Hettangian stage of the Early Jurassic Period of what is now Wales dated at about 201 million years ago. The fossil was first discovered in 2014 by Rob and Nick Hanigan and Sam Davies at the Blue Lias Formation on the South Wales coast. The genus name Dracoraptor is from Draco, referring to the Welsh dragon, and raptor, meaning robber, a commonly employed suffix for theropod dinosaurs, with the type species being Dracoraptor hanigani. It is one of the oldest known Jurassic dinosaurs and is the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales.
The first Dracoraptor fossils were discovered in 2014 near the Welsh town of Penarth. In March 2014, brothers and amateur palaeontologists Nick and Rob Hanigan, while searching for ichthyosaur remains at Lavernock Point, a large cape south of Cardiff, found stone plates containing dinosaur fossils which had fallen off the 7-metre (23 ft) high cliff face. Judith Adams and Philip Manning of the University of Manchester took X-ray pictures and CAT-scans of the fossils. The remains were donated to Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, and prepared by Craig Chivers and Gary Blackwell. In 2015, student Sam Davies found additional rock plates at the dig site which contained foot bones assigned to Dracoraptor.
The type species, Dracoraptor hanigani, was named and described in 2016 by British palaeontologists David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells, and John Nudds. The generic name combines the Latin draco, "dragon", a reference to the Welsh Dragon, with raptor, "robber". The specific name honours Nick and Rob Hanigan as discoverers.
The holotype, NMW 2015.5G.1–2015.5G.11, was discovered in the lower Bull Cliff Member of the Blue Lias Formation in the United Kingdom. More precisely, it came from a layer just metres below the first occurrence of Jurassic ammonite Psiloceras and above the Paper Shales that represent the lithological Triassic-Jurassic boundary, precisely dating the dinosaur to the earliest Hettangian stage, 201.3 million years ago ± 0.2 million years.
The holotype consists of a partial skeleton with skull. It contains both praemaxilla (frontmost upper jaw bones), both maxillae (main upper jaw bone), teeth, a lacrimal, a jugal, a postorbital, a squamosal, a supraoccipital, parts of the lower jaws, a possible hyoid, two cervical (neck) vertebrae (backbones), cervical ribs, rear dorsal (back) vertebrae, at least five front caudal (tail) vertebrae, chevrons, ribs, gastralia (or "belly ribs"), the lower parts of a left forelimb, a furcula (wishbone), both pubic bones, a left ischium (lower and rearmost hip bone), a right femur, a tibia (shin bone), the upper part of a fibula (calf bone), a left astragalus (ankle bone), three tarsals, and three metatarsals. About 40% of the skeleton is presented. Dracoraptor is thus the most complete Mesozoic non-bird theropod dinosaur known from Wales.
Dracoraptor was a biped, much like its relatives. The fossil discovered in Wales is a 2.1-metre (6.9 ft) juvenile with a hip height of 70 centimetres (28 in); adults may have been 3 m (9.8 ft) long.[citation needed]
In 2016, 18 autapomorphies (distinguishing traits) were established for Dracoraptor. The majority of these autapomorphies were convergent traits and had originated from other neotheropods. The Dracoraptor also possesses some plesiomorphic traits from ancestral species. The praemaxillae carried only three teeth, a basal trait. The jugal had a thin front branch running to the maxilla. The bony external nostril is large and had a thin branch beneath it. The pubic bone is obliquely directed to the front and is considerably longer than the ischium. The fourth tarsal had a process at the upper side.
In the front of the snout each praemaxilla embraces the front of a very large nostril. The skull bears three praemaxillary teeth per side and at least seven maxillary teeth. The teeth are recurved or dagger-shaped. The edges of the tooth crown are serrated with six to eight denticles per millimetre (0.03 in). On the trailing edge these serrations run all the way to the root, on the leading edge they end at a higher position. Towards the tip of the tooth, these denticles become gradually somewhat smaller. The maxilla borders an antorbital fenestra with a shallow depression. The jugal is a slender element with a straight lower edge, a thin front branch overlapped by the rear branch of the maxilla and an ascending process towards the lacrimal that is thin but not pointed. The lacrimal is rectangular and pinched in the middle.