Type Species: Dracoraptor hanigani
Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia – Theropoda - Coelophysoidea
Time Period: Early Jurassic
Location: Wales, United Kingdom
Diet: Carnivore
The ‘Dragon Thief’ lived during the Hettangian stage 201-199 million years ago in what is now Wales in the United Kingdom. It was discovered in 2014 and named in 2016. The fossils discovered indicate Dracoraptor was about seven feet long head-to-tail with a hip height at just over two feet; however, this individual is likely a juvenile, so adults may have grown as long as ten feet. During this point in the Jurassic Period, South Wales was a coastal area dotted with several small islands in a warm, shallow sea. The fossils were recovered from what would’ve been a point offshore, so Dracoraptor had been washed out to see from the northern landmass before being entombed in the seabed. Scientists speculate that this theropod prowled the shorelines, feasting on small vertebrate animals – its teeth were only about a centimeter long – and scavenging when it could. It may have made short hops between islands; on one trip, the discovered Dracoraptor may have been caught in a squall and been drowned before being washed farther out to sea.
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