Yuanmouraptor

Say it: yoo-an-moh-RAP-tor

Name means: “robber from Yuanmou County”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosMiddle Jurassic

Yuanmouraptor was a medium-sized meat-eating dinosaur that lived in China during the Middle Jurassic. It had a long skull full of sharp teeth and chased other animals through ancient forests.1

Lived

175 to 168 million years ago4

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Yunnan Province, China1 2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Yuanmouraptor lived about 174 to 168 million years ago, during the Aalenian and Bajocian ages of the Middle Jurassic.2

The only known fossil of Yuanmouraptor includes a nearly complete skull, lower jaws, ten neck vertebrae, and the first back vertebra.1

Its skull was about 60 centimetres (24 inches) long when fully reconstructed, which is smaller than the skull of its relative Yangchuanosaurus.1

Yuanmouraptor had special air sacs in its neck bones, shown by deep holes called pneumatic foramina on the third neck vertebra.1

The bones of the holotype show that the neural arches were fused to the vertebrae, meaning this dinosaur was nearly full-grown when it died.1

Yuanmouraptor is one of the oldest and most primitive members of the family Metriacanthosauridae, a group of allosauroid theropods.3 1

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

?How big was Yuanmouraptor?

Yuanmouraptor was a medium sized dinosaur. Its skull was about 60 centimetres long, which is smaller than the skull of its relative Yangchuanosaurus, which was about 80 centimetres long.1

?What did Yuanmouraptor eat?

Yuanmouraptor was a meat-eater. It had sharp teeth and chased other animals through ancient forests.1

?When did Yuanmouraptor live?

Yuanmouraptor lived about 174 to 168 million years ago, during the Aalenian and Bajocian ages of the Middle Jurassic.1

?Where was Yuanmouraptor found?

Yuanmouraptor was found in Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, China, in the Zhanghe Formation.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Yuanmouraptor
Named by: Zou et al. 20254
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Metriacanthosauridae4
Classification: Theropoda > Allosauroidea4
Age of the rocks: 175 to 168 million years (Aalenian / Bajocian)4
Rock formations: Zhanghe4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The Yuanmouraptor fossil was found in March 2006 on a farm near Xiabanjing Village in Yuanmou County, Yunnan, China. Scientists Zou, Chen, Wang, and others named it in 2025.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Yuanmouraptor is related to other metriacanthosaurids, because its fossils are incomplete and it is very old.3

Where the facts come from

Yuanmouraptor (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A new metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China - PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Yuanmouraptor in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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