Megaraptor
- Scientists have found the remains of four species of dinosaurs, including a megaraptor, in an inhospitable valley in Chilean Patagonia that has emerged over the past decade as an important fossil deposit.
- The fossils were found in Cerro Guido, in southern Chile’s Las Chinas valley near the border with Argentina, and taken to a laboratory in 2021.
- The researchers said they belong to dinosaurs that have not previously been identified in the area.
About Megaraptor:
- Megaraptor was a large theropod of the Cretaceous Period, 84 to 65 mya.
- Megaraptors possessed strong arms that wielded sickle-like claws that could inflict fatal wounds on prey, along with a more lightly built skull and jaws studded with smaller teeth.
- They also had air-filled, bird-like bones.
- Megaraptor was about 25–26 feet (7.5–8 meters) long.
- Incomplete Megaraptor remains were found in 1996 in Northwest Patagonia, Argentina, by paleontologist Fernando E. Novas. Novas named it in 1998.