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Meraxes

Say it: meh-RAX-eez

Name means: “named after a dragon from the Song of Ice and Fire books, and gigas means giant in Greek”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Cretaceous

Meraxes was a huge, meat-eating dinosaur with very short arms, just like T. rex! It lived in what is now Argentina and had a skull longer than a tall adult human.1 2

Lived

110 to 106 million years ago5

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Huincul Formation, Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina1 2

Food

Meat3

Length

9 to 11.6 m2

estimates vary; one study gives 9 to 10 m, another 10.2 to 11.6 m

Weight

4.263 tonnes1

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 2.5 cars parked in a rowas long as 64 bananas end to endas heavy as 140 big dogsas heavy as 850 watermelons

How big was Meraxes compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Meraxes had arms that were only about half the length of its thigh bone, similar to T. rex and other giant meat-eaters.1

Its skull was 1.27 metres (4.2 feet) long, as big as the skull of Acrocanthosaurus.2

Meraxes is the most complete carcharodontosaurid skeleton ever found in the Southern Hemisphere.1

The second toe of Meraxes had an enormous claw, almost twice as long as the claw on its fourth toe.2

This dinosaur lived about 100 to 90 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.3

Meraxes may have lived to be between 39 and 53 years old, making it one of the longest-lived meat-eating dinosaurs known.2

Its bones show that Meraxes grew to a huge size by taking a long time to grow, not by growing faster.2

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

?How big was Meraxes?

About 9 to 10 metres long, and it weighed around 4.26 metric tons.2

?Did Meraxes have feathers?

The sources do not mention feathers on Meraxes. It is not known for sure, but many large theropods like Meraxes are usually shown without feathers.1 2

?Was Meraxes bigger than T. rex?

No, Meraxes was smaller than T. rex. T. rex could be over 12 metres long, while Meraxes was about 9 to 10 metres.2

?What did Meraxes eat?

Meraxes was a meat-eater that likely hunted large plant-eating dinosaurs, such as sauropods like Argentinosaurus and Limaysaurus that lived in the same area.2

?Why did Meraxes have tiny arms?

Scientists think its arms shrank as its head grew bigger, because the skull took over the job of catching prey. This happened in several giant meat-eating dinosaur groups, including Meraxes and T. rex.1 4

?When did Meraxes live?

Meraxes lived about 100 to 90 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period.2

?Could Meraxes swim?

There is no information about whether Meraxes could swim. Like most large theropods, it probably stayed on land.2

?How fast could Meraxes run?

The sources do not give a speed for Meraxes. As a large predator, it was probably not very fast, but no exact speed is known.2

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Meraxes
Named by: Canale et al. 20225
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Carcharodontosauridae5
Classification: Theropoda > Allosauroidea > Carcharodontosauridae5
Age of the rocks: 110 to 106 million years (Albian)5
Rock formations: Huincul5
Countries: Argentina5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: The only known skeleton of Meraxes was found in 2012 in Argentina. Scientists named it in 2022 after a dragon from the Song of Ice and Fire books.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how long Meraxes was, because different ways of measuring give different lengths.2

Where the facts come from

New giant carnivorous dinosaur reveals convergent evolutionary trends in theropod arm reduction: Current Biology (cell.com)
Meraxes (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Newly discovered dinosaur had tiny arms like T. rex | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Meraxes 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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