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Ypupiara

Say it: you-pee-YAH-rah

Name means: “the one who lives in the water”1

Ate: FishRaptorsLate Cretaceous

Ypupiara was a small, fast raptor that lived in Brazil near the end of the age of dinosaurs. It had long, skinny teeth like a fish hook, perfect for catching slippery fish for dinner.1 2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Serra da Galga Formation, Brazil5 1

Food

Fish1 2

Length

3 m3

Weight

20 kg3

Height

1.2 m3

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?

height

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 5 house cats

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to endas heavy as 4 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Ypupiara compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ypupiara was the first dromaeosaurid (raptor) dinosaur ever discovered in South America.1

Its only known fossil was a piece of upper jaw and lower jaw, which was destroyed in a fire at the National Museum of Brazil in 2018.1

Scientists only described and named Ypupiara in 2021, using photographs taken just before the fire.1

Ypupiara's teeth were fluted (had grooves) and lacked serrations, which is unusual for a raptor.2

Its closest relative was Austroraptor, another fish-eating raptor from Argentina.1 2

The name Ypupiara comes from a Tupi word meaning 'the one who lives in the water', referring to a local water spirit.1

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

?How big was Ypupiara?

It was about 2 to 3 metres (6.6 to 9.8 feet) long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.4

?What did Ypupiara eat?

It mostly ate fish, using its long, skinny, hook-like teeth to catch them. It may also have eaten lizards and small amphibians.1 4

?When did Ypupiara live?

It lived near the end of the age of dinosaurs, between about 72 million and 66 million years ago.4

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Myth buster

Myth: Ypupiara was a giant raptor like Velociraptor from the movies.

Truth: Ypupiara was a small, slender unenlagiine raptor, probably about the size of a turkey or a large dog, and it ate fish, not large prey.1 2

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ypupiara
Named by: Brum et al. 20215
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Dromaeosauridae5
Classification: Theropoda > Dromaeosauridae5
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)5
Rock formations: Serra da Galga5
Countries: Brazil5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: The fossil was found by Alberto Lopa in the 1950s in Brazil. It was stored at the National Museum of Brazil and only described as a new dinosaur in 2021 by Arthur Brum and colleagues, after the original specimen was lost in a fire.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if another fossil called 'Lopasaurus' (a foot bone) belongs to the same species as Ypupiara, because the two fossils don't overlap in body parts.1

Where the facts come from

Ypupiara (en.wikipedia.org)
A new unenlagiine (Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Ypupiara lopai - Atlas Virtual da Pré-História (atlasvirtual.com.br)
Brazilian paleontologists identify new carnivorous dinosaur : Revista Pesquisa Fapesp (revistapesquisa.fapesp.br)
Ypupiara 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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