Halszkaraptor
HALSH-kuh-RAP-tor
"Halszka's seizer"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Dromaeosauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Cau et al. 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
The Djadokhta Formation records a dry landscape with dunes. Velociraptor, Protoceratops and Oviraptor lived in this region.
Field notes
About Halszkaraptor
What it was like
Halszkaraptor was a small, strange feathered dinosaur, about the size of a duck. It had a long, bendy neck, a flat snout with many small teeth, and front limbs that some scientists think may have worked like flippers.
It was first described as a dinosaur that swam and hunted in water, something like a merganser. Other scientists think it lived mainly on land. The debate is still open.
Its world
It lived about 84 to 72 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia. Its fossil comes from the Djadokhta Formation, a dry land shared with Velociraptor, Protoceratops, Citipati and Oviraptor.
How it was found
Cau and colleagues named Halszkaraptor in 2017. It is known from a single skeleton that was smuggled out of Mongolia and later returned.
Field gallery
More views of Halszkaraptor
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Halszkaraptor.
The evidence
The science behind Halszkaraptor
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- A largely complete skeleton shows an unusually long neck, a flattened snout and short arms.
- The front of the jaw carries many small teeth without serrated edges.
- Channels inside the snout carried nerves and blood vessels.
Borrowed from relatives
- Most of its body shape comes from its own skeleton.
- A feather covering is inferred from feathered relatives such as Microraptor.
Still unknown
- Whether it regularly swam and caught food underwater, a question scientists still debate.
- Its feather colors and the shape of its plumage.
- What it ate.
Discovery timeline
- 2017Named itCau et al.
- 2019How it fedBrownstein
- 2020Family treeCau
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Halszkaraptor
Named it
Described the long-necked skeleton and proposed that its snout and arms were adapted for feeding and swimming in water.
Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs. Nature 552: 395-399
Read the paper : Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs (opens in a new tab)How it fed
Compared its anatomy with other feathered dinosaurs and challenged the idea that it was a specialized swimmer and fish eater.
Halszkaraptor escuilliei and the evolution of the paravian bauplan. Scientific Reports 9
Read the paper : Halszkaraptor escuilliei and the evolution of the paravian bauplan (opens in a new tab)Family tree
Reexamined the disputed features and argued that they evolved within its own lineage, supporting a lifestyle on land and in water.
The body plan of Halszkaraptor escuilliei (Dinosauria, Theropoda) is not a transitional form along the evolution of dromaeosaurid hypercarnivory. PeerJ 8: e8672
Read the paper : The body plan of Halszkaraptor escuilliei (Dinosauria, Theropoda) is not a transitional form along the evolution of dromaeosaurid hypercarnivory (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Dromaeosauridae
Sources: Wikidata