page_title: Eoraptor
section_title: History of discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Eoraptor / History of discovery
caption_attribution_description: 産状骨格なのに浮いてる。
context_page_description: Eoraptor was one of the earliest-known dinosaurs, living approximately 231 to 228 million years ago, during the Late Triassic in Western Gondwana, in the region that is now northwestern Argentina. It was a small, lightly-built, basal saurischian dinosaur. It is known from several well-preserved skeletons. When first described in 1993, it was considered to be the earliest or one of the earliest known dinosaurs. Eoraptor has heterodont dentition, which suggests that it was omnivorous and that the feeding strategy had evolved early on in dinosaurs.
context_section_description: The bones of this primitive dinosaur were first discovered in 1991, by University of San Juan paleontologist Ricardo Martínez, during field work conducted by the University of Chicago and the University of San Juan. The holotype specimen PVSJ 512 was discovered in muddy siltstone belonging to the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. The fossils in this formation were deposited in the Carnian stage of the Triassic period, approximately 235 to 228 million years ago. It took almost 12 months to collect the holotype, which was then shipped to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for preparation by William F. Simpson and Bob Masek. The fossil was first put on display in Chicago and was then returned to San Juan, Argentina, where it went on display at the Museum of Natural Sciences.
  The genus name Eoraptor is derived from the Greek word eos (ηως) meaning "dawn", a reference to its primitive nature and the Latin word raptor meaning "plunderer", a reference to its presumed carnivorous nature and its grasping hand. The specific name lunensis is derived from the Latin words luna meaning "moon", and the suffix ~ensis, meaning "inhabitant". The specific name lunensis is a reference to its place of discovery: the "Valle de la Luna", which is Spanish for "Valley of the Moon." This valley is so named because of its arid, otherworldly appearance, evocative of a lunar landscape. The type species is Eoraptor lunensis, which means "dawn plunderer from the Valley of the Moon". Eoraptor was described and named by Paul Sereno, Catherine Forster, Raymond R. Rogers, and Alfredo M. Monetta in 1993.
caption: Holotype specimen
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