Utaraptor ( Latin Utahraptor ; literally “abductor from Utah”) is a genus of flesh-eating lizard- like dinosaurs of medium size (up to 5 m in length) from the dromaeosaurid family [1] who lived in the early Cretaceous period (the Barrem tier , about 130.0 - 125.0 million years ago) in what is now North America . The remains are found in Utah ( USA ), hence the name. Utaraptors may have been high predators and hunted relatively large herbivorous dinosaurs [2] .
| † Ytaraptor |
Reconstruction | 
Utaraptor compared to man |
|
| Scientific classification |
|---|
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetric |
| Infraclass : | Archosauromorphs |
| No rank : | Archosauriformes |
| Group : | † Maniraptoriformes |
|
| International Scientific Name |
|---|
Utahraptor
Kirkland et al. 1993 |
| Kinds |
|---|
- Utahraptor ostrommaysi Kirkland et al. 1993
|
Geochronology
Bottom chalk145.0-100.5 Ma | million years | Period | Era | Eon |
|---|
| 2.588 | Even | | | Ka | F
but
n
e
R
about
s
about
th | | 23.03 | Neogene | | 66.0 | Paleogene | | 145.5 | a piece of chalk | M
e
s
about
s
about
th | | 199.6 | Yura | | 251 | Triassic | | 299 | Permian | P
but
l
e
about
s
about
th | | 359.2 | Carbon | | 416 | Devonian | | 443.7 | Silur | | 488.3 | Ordovician | | 542 | Cambrian | | 4570 | Precambrian |
◄ Nowadays◄ Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction◄ Triassic extinction◄ Perm mass extinction◄ Devonian extinction◄ Ordovician-Silurian extinction◄ Cambrian explosion |
|---|
|
Sculpture of a utahptor in a museum in Canberra
Content
For the first time, the remains of a uataraptor were discovered by paleontologists James Kirkland, Rob Gaston and Don Burg in Grand County, Cedar Mountain, Utah . The discovery was given the name "utaptor" in 1991 [2] . The found remains were kept in the Museum of Prehistoric Life at the College of Geography in Utah.
In 1993, famous American paleontologists John Ostrom and Chris Mace officially endorsed the name “utaptor” and described the dinosaur as Utahraptor ostrommaysi.
At the moment, the first and only skeleton of the utahprator is mounted in the museum of prehistoric life in Utah, and its statue greets visitors at the entrance to the museum. In 2013, the statue was stolen and a few days later it was found and returned to the museum [3] .
Before the discovery of the uataraptor, it was believed that dromaeosaurids were small animals, reaching no more than 2-3 meters in length. However, when a utaprator was detected, it turned out that there were exceptions to this rule. Its length was estimated at 5 meters based on the proportions of deinonychus, and its mass not less than 500 kg. Later it turned out that it was a very massive and stocky animal with a relatively large head and completely different proportions. In reality, the utaprator was most likely about 5 meters long, but weighed the same or even more than with the old reconstruction [4] .
Like all dromaeosaurids, the yutaraptor had a huge sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each hind legs, which, however, hardly served as a weapon due to biomechanical limitations. Phylogenetic analysis showed that it was most likely covered with feathers. As with other dromaeosaurids, there is no actual evidence of the group behavior of the utaptor, contrary to the popularity of this assumption in the media.
The closest known utahptor relatives are dromaeosaurids dromaeosaur ( Dromaeosaurus ) from the Upper Cretaceous of North America and the Achillobator ( Achillobator giganticus ) from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia .
