MEANING: Dorset thief
PERIOD: Early Jurassic
CONTINENT: Europe
Dornraptor is a relatively basal theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of what is now England. One of the earliest known averostrans, Dornraptor exhibited the basic theropod body plan and lifestyle. It walked on two legs with three clawed toes on each foot, and had a carinvorous diet. Typical for the Early Jurassic, Dornraptor was a medium-sized theropod at around 6 m in length.
Abstract from paper: Terrestrial reptile remains are rare in Early Jurassic deposits from the UK but include important records of early dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Here we report an isolated limb bone from the Charmouth Mudstone Formation (upper Sinemurian) of Charmouth, Dorset that was previously misidentified as a referred specimen of the pterosaur Dimorphodon macronyx. Comparisons with other Early Jurassic tetrapods indicate that this element is the fibula of a neotheropod dinosaur, representing one of only a handful of theropod remains from the Lias Group. Although the material is limited the fibula is distinct from other penecontemporaneous European theropods and might represent a new – though currently undiagnosable – taxon. This, alongside other isolated discoveries, indicates that there might have been a higher diversity of theropod taxa in the Early Jurassic of Europe than is generally appreciated.
Dornraptor is from the Jurassic. The Jurassic is a geologic period that spanned from the end of the Triassic, 201 million y ears ago, to the beginning of the Cretaceous, 145 million years ago. It is the middle period of the Mesozoic Era. The start of the Jurassic was marked by the major Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The end, however, has no clear boundary with the Cretaceous. By the beginning of the Jurassic, Pangea had begun rifting into two landmasses: Laurasia and Gondwana, and the climate was warm with no ice caps. Life on land was dominated by dinosaurs, and the first birds appeared, evolving from a branch of theropods. The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles, while pterosaurs were the dominant flying vertebrates.
Dornraptor is a theropod. Theropods are dinosaurs that are characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic period and included all the large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous. In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized theropods, and are today represented by about 10,500 living species.