Sinraptor is a metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. It was named in 1994 by Philip J. Currie and Zhao Xijin. It was one of the biggest Jurassic dinosaurs in China; as well as this, it was given a name that may lead people to believe that it was a dromaeosaurid, when in reality, it was more related to larger theropods like Allosaurus.
Physiology[]
Sinraptor was a large theropod with a semi-bulky body, a long tail, mid-sized arms with 3 fingers on each hand, and a large head with a mouth containing lots of big teeth. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.
Diet[]
Sinraptor was a predator, preying on ornithopods, mid-sized sauropods, stegosaurians, small crocodylomorphs, small pterosaurs, and smaller theropods. Its teeth had knife-like serrations from back to back, and were used to slice off pieces of flesh from the bodies of large prey.
Ecology[]
So far, all we know about Sinraptor is that when hunting large-bodied prey, it would would rush up to them, bite a large chunk of flesh off their bodies with its jaws, and let them attempt to run away, as blood loss would weaken them and allow it to finish them off with another deadly bite; as well as this, it wasn't an extremely fast runner (due to its leg proportions), but was able to keep up with many of its prey items (as they were slower than it was).
In popular culture[]
Sinraptor was featured in the 2nd episode of the 2011 documentary Planet Dinosaur, where a hungry sub-adult individual tries to eat an Epidexipteryx hidden in a log; however, the scansoriopterygid escapes the metriacanthosaurid just before it was able to nab its smaller target. Later, said Epidexipteryx drops its beetle larva meal onto the forest floor, only for the grub to be taken by another Epidexipteryx; just in time, the sub-adult Sinraptor shows up to kill the food-stealer.