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Sinraptor

Say it: sin-RAP-tor

Name means: “Chinese robber”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosMiddle Jurassic to Late Jurassic

Sinraptor was a big, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in China during the Late Jurassic. It was a cousin of Allosaurus and used its sharp, blade-like teeth to hunt other dinosaurs.1

Lived

168 to 155 million years ago5

Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Xinjiang and Sichuan, China2 1

Food

Meat1

Length

7.6 to 8.8 m1

estimates vary; one giant tooth suggests a possible length of up to 12 m

Weight

1.3 tonnes1

Height

3 m1

at the hips

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?

at the hips

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 43 big dogs

as long as 9 dogs nose to tailas long as 49 bananas end to endas heavy as 260 watermelonsas tall as 1.5 doors stacked up

How big was Sinraptor compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Sinraptor was named in 1994 by Philip Currie and Zhao Xijin after a fossil was found in the Gobi Desert of China in 1987.3 1

Despite its name, Sinraptor is not a close relative of Velociraptor. It belongs to a different group called carnosaurs.1

A single Sinraptor tooth found in the same rocks is 10 cm (3.9 in) long. If it belonged to Sinraptor, that animal might have been up to 12 m (39 ft) long.1

The holotype skeleton of Sinraptor dongi is nearly complete but missing most of the tail and arms. It is kept at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Canada.3 1

Sinraptor had a large air-filled hole in its cheek bone (jugal), which helped lighten its skull.3

One Sinraptor skeleton shows a broken rib that healed by telescoping, meaning the broken ends slid together. It also has tooth marks from other dinosaurs.1

Sinraptor lived about 160 million years ago, during the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic.1

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

?How big was Sinraptor?

About 7.6 metres (25 feet) long and nearly 3 metres (9.8 feet) tall. Some estimates suggest it could reach up to 8.8 metres (29 feet) in length, and one giant tooth hints it might have grown as large as 12 metres (39 feet).1 4

?What did Sinraptor eat?

Sinraptor was a meat-eater that likely hunted medium-sized dinosaurs like stegosaurs. It used its sharp, blade-like teeth to bite and kill its prey.1

?Is Sinraptor a dinosaur?

Yes, Sinraptor is a dinosaur. It was a large theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period.1 4

?When did Sinraptor live?

Sinraptor lived about 160 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.1 4

?Where was Sinraptor found?

Sinraptor fossils were found in the Shishugou Formation in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China.1 3

?Was Sinraptor bigger than Velociraptor?

Yes, Sinraptor was much bigger than Velociraptor. Sinraptor was about 7.6 metres (25 feet) long, while Velociraptor was only about 2 metres (6.5 feet) long.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Sinraptor is a type of raptor like Velociraptor.

Truth: Sinraptor is not a dromaeosaurid (raptor). It is a carnosaur, more closely related to Allosaurus.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Sinraptor
Named by: Currie and Zhao 19945
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Metriacanthosauridae5
Classification: Theropoda > Allosauroidea5
Age of the rocks: 168 to 155 million years (Bathonian / Oxfordian)5
Rock formations: Shishugou, Shaximiao5
Countries: China5
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Sinraptor was discovered in 1987 during a joint Chinese-Canadian expedition in the Shishugou Formation of Xinjiang, China. It was named and described by Philip J. Currie and Zhao Xijin in 1994.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if the species Sinraptor hepingensis really belongs to Sinraptor or to its close relative Yangchuanosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Sinraptor (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A new carnosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Jurassic of Xinjiang, People's Republic of China (cdnsciencepub.com)
Sinraptor | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Sinraptor 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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