In Depth
An interesting little dinosaur, Dracoraptor was a small theropod dinosaur that roamed around what is now Wales during the early Jurassic. The holotype (first found) individual of Dracoraptor has been reconstructed at just over two meters in length, however, the holotype was a juvenile animal, and adults would have been larger. Dracoraptor was lightly built, with long legs that would have allowed for a high running speed, enabling Dracoraptor to chase down swift moving prey. The small size and build however meant that Dracoraptor would have been limited to hunting smaller animals.
Fossils of the first individual of Dracoraptor were recovered in 2014 by Nick and Rob Hanigan, two brothers who are also amateur palaeontologists who were searching a cliff face for fossils of ichthyosaurs. Later in 2015, more fossils were found by a student named Sam Davies. The fact that fossils of Dracoraptor have been found in a deposit known for marine creatures would indicate that at least one individual of Dracoraptor had been swept out to sea and then buried in marine sediment. Assuming that an individual/s was not swept out to sea by a river, it may be that Dracoraptor were known to hunt animals and scavenge carrion on the shoreline, effectively being beachcombers.
Further Reading
- The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain. - PLoS ONE 11(1):e0145713:1-38. - D. M. Martill, S. U. Vidovic, C. Howells & J. R. Nudds - 2016.
