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Maip

Say it: MY-ip

Name means: “shadow of death”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosLate Cretaceous

Maip was a huge meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina. It had long, strong arms with big claws and was one of the biggest predators of its time.6 2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago6

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Santa Cruz Province, Argentina6 1

Food

Meat6 2

Length

9 to 10 m1

estimated based on comparisons with other megaraptorids

Weight

1.3 tonnes to 5 tonnes3 4

range from Wikipedia (1.3 metric tons) and CONICET (5 tons)

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 3 cars

as long as 2 cars parked in a rowas long as 56 bananas end to endabout as heavy as an elephantas heavy as 1000 watermelons

How big was Maip compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Maip is the biggest megaraptorid dinosaur ever found, reaching about 9 to 10 metres long.1

Its name comes from a monster in the mythology of the Aonikenk people that kills with cold wind.1

Maip had a very wide chest, more than 1.2 metres across, which is why its species name is 'macrothorax' meaning 'big chest'.1

It lived near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 72 to 66 million years ago.6

Maip is known from a partial skeleton including many back bones, ribs, and part of the shoulder.1

Its teeth were short, strongly curved, and shaped like an '8' in cross-section.2

AI-made picture of Maip — An AI-made picture of how Maip 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 Maip

?How big was Maip?

Maip was about 9 to 10 metres (30 to 33 feet) long and weighed over 1.3 metric tons (1.4 short tons). It is the largest known megaraptorid.5 4

?What did Maip eat?

Maip was a meat-eater. It used its long arms and 35-centimetre-long claws to grab and tear apart its prey, and its teeth were sharp but small.4

?When did Maip live?

Maip lived near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 72 to 66 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.5

?Where was Maip found?

Maip's fossils were discovered on a farm called La Anita, about 30 kilometres west of El Calafate in Santa Cruz, Argentina.5

?Why is it called Maip?

Maip is named after a monster from Aonikenk mythology that kills with cold wind. The name was chosen because the dinosaur lived in a cold, mountainous area.5 4

?Did Maip have feathers?

No direct feather fossils have been found for Maip, but it is a coelurosaur, a group that includes feathered dinosaurs. Scientists are not sure if it had feathers.5

?Was Maip bigger than T. rex?

No, Maip was smaller than T. rex. T. rex could reach about 12 metres (40 feet) long and weigh over 8 metric tons, while Maip was about 9 to 10 metres long and weighed over 1.3 metric tons.5

?How fast could Maip run?

Scientists do not know exactly how fast Maip could run, but its long legs and light, hollow bones suggest it was a relatively agile predator.4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Maip
Named by: Aranciaga Rolando et al. 20226
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Megaraptoridae6
Classification: Theropoda > Megaraptora6
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)6
Rock formations: Chorrillo6
Countries: Argentina6
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Maip was named in 2022 by a team of scientists led by Alexis Aranciaga Rolando. The fossils were found at La Anita Farm in southern Argentina.6 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether megaraptorids like Maip are more closely related to allosauroids or to coelurosaurs.2

Where the facts come from

A large Megaraptoridae (Theropoda: Coelurosauria) from Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Patagonia, Argentina (dinodata.de)
A large Megaraptoridae (Theropoda: Coelurosauria) from Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Patagonia, Argentina - PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Maip (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Maip: the huge carnivorous predator that was one of the last dinosaurs before extinction | CONICET (conicet.gov.ar)
Maip (en.wikipedia.org)
Maip 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.

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