Outline: a typical theropod
Graciliraptor
"graceful thief"
- Lived
- 126 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Dromaeosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu and Wang 2004
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Graciliraptor
What it was like
Graciliraptor was a small feathered hunter, a relative of Microraptor. It is known from parts of the arms, legs and tail.
Its world
It lived about 126 to 120 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its bones come from the Yixian Formation, a land of forests and lakes shared with the feathered Sinornithosaurus and Sinosauropteryx and the horned Psittacosaurus.
How it was found
Xu and Wang named Graciliraptor in 2004 from one find.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Dromaeosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu and X.-L. Wang. 2004. A new dromaeosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of western Liaoning. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 42(2):111-119