Santanaraptor

San-tan-ah-rap-tor.
Published on

Benjamin Gutierrez

Vertebrate Paleontologist

Benjamin Gutierrez is a leading expert on dinosaurs, particularly the mighty theropods. His fieldwork in South America has uncovered new species and provided insights into dinosaur social structures.

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Name

Santanaraptor ‭(‬Santana thief‭)‬.

Phonetic

San-tan-ah-rap-tor.

Named By

Kellner‭ ‬-‭ ‬1999.

Classification

Choradata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Saurischia,‭ ‬Theropoda,‭ ‬Tyrannosauroidea‭?

Diet

Carnivore.

Species

S.‭ ‬placidus

Size

1.25‭ ‬meter long.

Known locations

Brazil‭ ‬-‭ ‬Santana Formation.

Time Period

Aptian to Albian of the Cretaceous.

Fossil representation

Partial remains of vertebrae,‭ ‬ischia and hind limbs,‭ ‬but fossilised soft tissue was also found.

In Depth

       Santanaraptor has caused a stir within the palaeontological world not only because some palaeontologists think it is an early tyrannosaurid,‭ ‬but because it was found in South America,‭ ‬a continent long thought to be devoid of the presence of tyrannosaurs.‭ ‬Apart from similar skeletal features,‭ ‬Santanaraptor is in the right time and location that you would expect an early tyrannosaurid to appear,‭ ‬after all spinosaurids are known Brazil,‭ ‬and are thought to have arrived via a land bridge from North Africa.‭ ‬Early tyrannosaurids also have a large geographic range being known from North America with‭ ‬Stokesosaurus‭ ‬to Asia with Dilong and Guanlong,‭ ‬all the way to the British Isles with Eotyrannus.‭

       Unfortunately as exciting as this concept possibly is,‭ ‬later study and examination of the fossils has since ruled them to probably represent a coelurosaur.‭ ‬This actually does explain the tyrannosauroid similarity as the‭ ‬tyrannosaurs are thought to have their evolutional roots within this group.‭

       Although the remains of Santanaraptor were very incomplete,‭ ‬they did at least yield an idea of this dinosaur’s biology with the presence of mineralised soft tissue.‭ ‬This tissue is thought to represent skin and muscle,‭ ‬although it may include blood vessels.‭ ‬On its own it does not reveal the complete inner working of dinosaur biology,‭ ‬but as time goes on more and more soft tissue fossils become known to science,‭ ‬allowing the work of revealing dinosaur biology to go beyond the theory and into the practical.

Further Reading

– Short note on a new dinosaur (Theropoda, Coelurosauria) from the Santana Formation (Romualdo Member, Albian), northeastern Brazil. – Boletim do Museu Nacional, Nova S�rie 49:1-8. – A. W. A. Kellner – 1999. – Tyrannosauroids from the Southern Hemisphere: Implications for biogeography, evolution, and taxonomy. – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. – Rafael Delcourt & Orlando Nelson Grillo – 2018.

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