Dino card No. 0705 of 2,027

Geminiraptor

Say it: JEM-ih-nee-RAP-tor

Name means: “twin seizer”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsEarly Cretaceous

Geminiraptor was a small, fast, meat-eating dinosaur with lots of sharp teeth. It lived in what is now Utah, USA, about 139 to 134 million years ago. This dinosaur was a troodontid, a group known for being brainy and bird-like.1

Lived

137 to 133 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lower Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA1 4

Food

Meat4 1

Length

1.5 m1

estimate

Weight

2.27 kg to 9.1 kg1

Height

1.5 m3

head height

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

head height

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 2.5 house cats

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 8 bananas end to endas heavy as 76 bananasup to the handle of a door

How big was Geminiraptor compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Geminiraptor is named after twin geologists Marina and Celina Suarez, who discovered the fossil site. The name means 'twin seizer'.1

Only one piece of the skull, an upper jaw bone called a maxilla, has been found. Scientists think the whole dinosaur was about 1.5 meters (5 feet) long.1

Its upper jaw had at least 19 teeth, and the sockets were square-shaped, which is unusual. This feature is only known in one other troodontid, Sinovenator.1

Geminiraptor's upper jaw had a big air pocket inside, giving it a triangular shape when cut across. This helped make the skull lighter.1

It lived alongside other dinosaurs such as the theropods Falcarius and Yurgovuchia, the sauropod Mierasaurus, and the large plant-eater Iguanacolossus.1

Geminiraptor was a troodontid, a group of smart, bird-like dinosaurs. It was one of the first troodontids found in North America from the Early Cretaceous.1 2

AI-made picture of Geminiraptor — An AI-made picture of how Geminiraptor might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Geminiraptor

?How big was Geminiraptor?

It was a small dinosaur, about 1.5 metres (5 feet) long and weighed roughly 2.3 to 9 kilograms (5 to 20 pounds).1

?What did Geminiraptor eat?

It was a meat-eater, a carnivore that likely hunted small animals. Its many sharp teeth helped it catch and eat prey.1 4

?When did Geminiraptor live?

It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 139 to 134 million years ago.1

?Where was Geminiraptor found?

Its only fossil, an upper jaw bone, was found in Utah, USA, in the Cedar Mountain Formation.1 4

?Is Geminiraptor a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It belongs to the group Troodontidae, which are small, bird-like theropod dinosaurs.1

?Why is it called Geminiraptor?

Its name means 'twin seizer' in Latin, after the twin geologists Marina and Celina Suarez who found the fossil site.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Geminiraptor
Named by: Senter et al. 20104
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae4
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae4
Age of the rocks: 137 to 133 million years (Valanginian)4
Rock formations: Cedar Mountain4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Geminiraptor was named by Phil Senter, James I. Kirkland, John Bird, and Jeff A. Bartlett in 2010. It was described from a single upper jaw bone found in Utah, USA.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Geminiraptor fits in the troodontid family tree. It might be closely related to Sinovenator because both have bony walls between their tooth sockets.1

Where the facts come from

Geminiraptor (en.wikipedia.org)
S-EPMC3002269 - A new troodontid theropod dinosaur from the lower Cretaceous of Utah. - OmicsDI (omicsdi.org)
Falcarius (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Geminiraptor in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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