Aratasaurus
Aratasaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil. It was a young animal when it died, and scientists think it would have grown bigger. Its leg bones were found in a dark shale rock.12
When did it live?
How big was it?
How long was it?
How heavy was it?
How big was Aratasaurus compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Fun facts
Aratasaurus is known from only one partial right leg, including part of the thigh bone, shin bone, and foot bones.1
It lived about 115 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.2
The fossil was discovered in 2008 in a plaster mine.2
Aratasaurus is the only tetrapod (four-limbed animal) found so far in the lower layers of the Romualdo Formation.12
Its name comes from the Tupi language words for 'born' and 'fire', because the fossil was studied at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, which was damaged by a fire in 2018.1
Scientists think Aratasaurus was a basal coelurosaur, meaning it was an early relative of more advanced theropods like Tyrannosaurus.1
Most asked questions about Aratasaurus
?How big was Aratasaurus?
It was about 3.12 metres (10.2 ft) long and weighed around 34.25 kilograms (75.5 lb). But it was still growing when it died, so adults could have been larger.21
?Did Aratasaurus have feathers?
Yes, scientists think it likely had some form of feather covering because it was a coelurosaur, a group that includes feathered dinosaurs. No feathers were preserved in the fossil, though.2
?What did Aratasaurus eat?
Aratasaurus was a meat-eating dinosaur, or theropod. It likely hunted small animals, but its exact diet is not known from the few bones found.2
Ask Rex about Aratasaurus
Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.
Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Aratasaurus
- Named by
- Sayão et al. 20203
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Coelurosauria3
- Classification
- Theropoda3
- Age of the rocks
- 113 to 110 million years (Albian)3
- Rock formations
- Romualdo3
- Countries
- Brazil3
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- Aratasaurus was named in 2020 by a team of Brazilian and Chinese scientists. The fossil was donated by a local resident who found it in the Mina Pedra Branca mine near Santana do Cariri, Brazil.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure exactly how big Aratasaurus would have grown as an adult, because only a juvenile specimen has been found.1
Where the facts come from
- The first theropod dinosaur (Coelurosauria, Theropoda) from the base of the Romualdo Formation (Albian), Araripe Basin, Northeast Brazil (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Aratasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Aratasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex
Allosaurus
Carnotaurus
Dilophosaurus
Giganotosaurus
Compsognathus
Paronychodon
Stegosaurus
Iguanodon
Archaeopteryx
Microraptor
Deinonychus
Baryonyx