Ozraptor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ozraptor |
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| A skeletal reconstruction based on evidence suggesting it is an abelisaurid | |
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Ozraptor
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| Species: |
subotaii
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Ozraptor (say "Oz-rap-tor") means "Australian thief." It was a type of meat-eating dinosaur called a theropod. Scientists think it might have been an abelisauroid, which is a group of theropods known for their short, deep skulls and tiny arms. This dinosaur lived in Australia during the Middle Jurassic period, about 169 million years ago. We only know about Ozraptor from a few small bone pieces.
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Discovery and Naming of Ozraptor
In 1967, four twelve-year-old schoolboys from Scotch College made an exciting discovery. They found a fossil bone at a place called the Bringo Railway Cutting, near Geraldton. They showed their find to Professor Rex Prider from the University of Western Australia.
Professor Prider had a copy of the bone made and sent it to experts at the British Museum of Natural History in London. At first, these experts thought the bone might belong to an extinct turtle.
However, in the 1990s, the bone was looked at again by two scientists, John Albert Long and Ralph Molnar. After carefully preparing the fossil out of the rock, they realized it was actually the shinbone of a theropod dinosaur!
How Ozraptor Got Its Name
In 1998, Long and Molnar officially named and described the dinosaur. They called it Ozraptor subotaii.
- The first part of the name, Ozraptor, comes from "Ozzies," a common nickname for Australians. The word raptor is Latin for "seizer" or "thief." So, Ozraptor means "Australian thief."
- The second part of the name, subotaii, honors a fictional character named Subotai. He was a fast-running thief and archer from the movie Conan the Barbarian.
The Only Known Bone
The only bone ever found of Ozraptor is called the holotype, known as UWA 82469. It was found in a rock layer called the Colalura Sandstone. This rock dates back to the Middle Bajocian age, which was about 169 million years ago. The fossil is the lower part of a left shinbone (tibia).
Ozraptor is one of the oldest known dinosaurs from Australia, along with another dinosaur called Rhoetosaurus.
What the Bone Tells Us
The fossil bone is about 8 centimetres (3.1 in) long and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) wide at its lower end. Based on these measurements, scientists guess that the full shinbone would have been about 17 to 20 centimetres (6.7 to 7.9 in) long. They also estimate that the entire Ozraptor dinosaur might have been about 2 metres (6.6 ft) long, which is roughly the size of a large human or a small car.
Scientists found three special features on the bone that helped them confirm it was a unique type of dinosaur:
- A part of the ankle bone (called the astragalus) had a rectangular shape with a straight top.
- There was a vertical ridge on the surface where the ankle bone connected.
- A specific part of the bone (the medial condyle) was not very developed.
Classifying Ozraptor
Because we only have one small part of a leg bone, it's quite hard for scientists to figure out exactly where Ozraptor fits in the dinosaur family tree.
In 1998, the scientists who first described Ozraptor could only say for sure that it was a theropod dinosaur, but they weren't sure of its exact group (this is called incertae sedis).
Later, in 2004, a scientist named Thomas Holtz thought Ozraptor might be part of a group called Avetheropoda.
Then, in 2005, another study by Oliver Rauhut suggested something different. He believed Ozraptor was indeed a theropod, but more specifically, a member of the Abelisauroidea group. He thought this because of a clear vertical ridge found on the ankle bone. If Ozraptor truly is an abelisauroid, it would be the oldest one ever discovered!
See also
In Spanish: Ozraptor subotaii para niños
