NAME

Meaning - Eoraptor means “Dawn plunderer”
Pronounced - EE-oh-RAP-tor
Named By - Paul Sereno, Forster, Rogers and Monetta
When Named - 1993
DIET

Carnivore (meat-eater)
SIZE

Length - 3 ft (1 m) long
Height - 1 ft (30 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - ?
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Triassic period, about 228 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the Ischigualasto Formation, Valley of the Moon, Ischigualsto-Villa Union Basin, in northwestern Argentina, South America.
FOSSILS

Several almost complete skeletons have been found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Genus Eoraptor
  • Species E. lunensis (type species named by Sereno, Forster, Rogers and Monetta, 1993)
INTERESTING FACTS

Eoraptor is one of the earliest known dinosaurs. Recently, even older dinosaurs have been found in Madagascar. Eoraptor was a small, lightly-built dinosaur that walked on two long legs. It had light, hollow bones, a long head with dozens of small, sharp teeth, and five fingers on its grasping hands (two of the fingers on each hand were very small).
LINKS

A detailed page on Eoraptor.
A coloring/information printout on Eoraptor.