Noasaurus

What it was like

Noasaurus was a small, lightly built predator about 1 meter (3 feet) long. It is known from a few pieces of the skull, backbone and limbs. A large curved claw found with it was first thought to be a killing claw on the foot, like a raptor's, but later studies suggest it came from the hand.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous, in northwestern Argentina. Its bones come from the Lecho Formation, where it lived alongside the armored titanosaur Saltasaurus.

How it was found

Bonaparte and Powell named Noasaurus in 1980 from one find. It gave its name to the noasaurids, a family of small, slender meat eaters from the southern continents.