Orkoraptor

Name: Orkoraptor ‭(‬Toothed river thief‭)‬.
Phonetic: Or-kor-rap-tor.
Named By: Novas,‭ ‬Excurra‭ & ‬Leocuona‭ ‬-‭ ‬2008.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Saurischia,‭ ‬Theropoda,‭ ‬Megaraptora.
Species: O.‭ ‬burkei‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete fossil material.
Known locations: Argentina.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: ‭P‬artial skull,‭ ‬teeth,‭ ‬caudal‭ (‬tail‭) ‬vertebra and a partial tibia‭ (‬one of the lower leg bones‭)‬.

       The name Orkoraptor is derived from‭ '‬Orr-Korr‭' ‬the Aoniken name for the La Leona River of Argentina.When first described,‭ ‬Orkoraptor was thought to be a coelurosaur thus a possible tyrannosauroid.‭ ‬However later studies have since caused this notion to be dismissed as Orkoraptor seems to actually be a form of late surviving allosaurid, possibly a megaraptoran.‭
       It's possible that the geographic isolation‭ ‬of South America from the rest of the world during the Cretaceous may have protected the lineage that led to Orkoraptor from other newly appearing forms.‭ ‬This is also reflected in the fact that Orkoraptor is one of the southernmost carnivorous dinosaurs that have been discovered in South America.‭ ‬Unless future fossil finds prove otherwise,‭ ‬Orkoraptor may have been restricted to the south due to the abundance of carcharodontid and abelisaurid theropods further north.

Further reading
- Orkoraptor burkei nov. gen. et sp., a large theropod from the Maasdtrichtian Pari Aike Formation, southern Patagonia, Argentina. - Cretaceous Research 29(3):468-480. - F. E. Novas, M. D. Ezcurra & A. Lecuona - 2008.



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