Gigantoraptor

*Gigantoraptor erlianensis*

***Gigantoraptor*** is a genus of giant oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaur. It was discovered in 2005 in the Iren Dabasu Formation, Erlian basin, in Inner Mongolia. The age of the Iren Dabasu formation is controversial. Based on ostracods, Godefroit suggested the unit was Nemegt equivalent or about 70 million years old, although some dinosaur remains suggest an older Baynshirenian age c 85-90 Ma.

About 26 ft (8 m) long and weighing as much as a car, this enormous Oviraptorosaur is far bigger than any of its known relatives. Like all oviraptorasaurs, Gigantoraptor almost certainly had long, flamboyant feathers on its arms.

## Description

It was clear to Xu Et Al. that *Gigantoraptor* belonged to the oviraptosauria, a group named after *Oviraptor*, but it was much larger approximately 3 times long and 35 times more massive than the previously known largest oviraptosaur *Citipati*. Xu Et Al. also estimated the length at 8 meters and a weight of 1400 kg, but Gregory S. Paul remarked that the weight could have been 2 tons and a length of 11 m since that fossil was a juvenile. It is the largest oviraptosaur, but a new species of oviraptor has been found named *Beibeilong* which is around the same size at 8 meters. So there is a huge debate at which is the largest oviraptosaur.

The toothless lower beak of this creature was fuse into a broad mandibula, they indicate that the unkown skull was over half a meter long and toothless also, probably equipped with a horny beak. The front tail vertebrae has a very long neural spines and are heavily pneumaticised with deep pleurocoels. The middle section of the relatively short tail is somewhat stiffened by long prezygapophyses. The back tail vertebrae are lightened by spongeous bone. The front limb is rather long because of an elongated slender hand. The humerus is bowed outwards to an exceptionally large extent and has a very rounded head. The first metacarpal is very short and carries a strongly diverging thumb. The hindlimb is also long because of an elongated lower leg. The thighbone is relatively slender and short with a distinct head and neck. The foot is robust with large and strongly curved toe claws.

No direct evidence of feathers was preserved with the skeleton, but Xu et al. (2007) discussed their likely presence on *Gigantoraptor*. They admitted that despite *Gigantoraptor* being a member of the Oviraptorosauria, a group that includes the feathered species *Caudipteryx* and *Protarchaeopteryx*, it might have been "naked" because it is three hundred times as massive as these species, and very large animals may rely more on mass for temperature regulation, losing the insulating coverings found on their smaller relatives. However, they suggested that at least arm feathers were probably still present on *Gigantoraptor*, since their primary functions, such as display and covering the eggs while brooding, are not related to the regulation of body heat.

*Gigantoraptor* is the largest beaked theropod so far; and unlike most large theropods it had much ganglier and thin limbs. It is thought that along with other advanced coelurosaurs, the Tyrannoraptorans (Tyrannosauroidea, Coeluridae, Ornithomimosauria, Alvarezsauroidea, Therizinosauria, Oviraptorosauria (its' own group), Deinonychosauria, and Avialae), it had a large portion of its body covered with feathers used for display. It is unknown exactly what it would eat, but most people assume that it would have a diet consisting of fruit, unfertilized eggs, small and medium sized dinosaurs and more. The specimen that was found was only eleven years of age; it is most likely that this life forms adult stage was much larger. At first when it was discovered by Xing Xu it was mistakenly classified it as a tyrannosaur. It is thought that its closest relatives was *Caudipteryx*. Several *Gigantoraptor* fossils have been found on top of nests, which showed that these dinosaurs sat on the nest to protect the egg. This is similar to modern day birds.

## History of discovery

In a quarry at Saihangaobi, in Sonid Left Banner (Inner Mongolia), numerous remains of the sauropod *Sonidosaurus* have been uncovered since 2001. Chinese paleontologist Xu Xing was asked to reenact the discovery of *Sonidosaurus* in April 2005 for a Japanese documentary. Xu obliged them by digging out a thighbone. As he wiped the bone clean, he suddenly realized it was not from a sauropod, but from an unidentified theropod in the size class of *Albertosaurus*. He then stopped the filming to secure the serendipitous find. This way, the discovery of the *Gigantoraptor* holotype fossil was documented on film.

In 2007, the type species *Gigantoraptor erlianensis* was named and described by Xu, Tan Qingwei, Wang Jianmin, Zhao Xijin and Tan Lin. The generic name is derived from Latin gigas, gigantis, "giant" and raptor, "seizer". The specific name refers to the Erlian Basin.

The only known type specimen, LH V0011, was discovered in 2005 in the Iren Dabasu Formation, Erlian basin, in Inner Mongolia. The age of the Iren Dabasu formation is controversial; based on ostracods, Godefroit suggested the unit was equivalent to the Nemegt Formation, or about 70 Ma,[citation needed] though some vertebrate remains suggest an older Santonian age, between 84 and 86 Ma.[citation needed] It consists of the incomplete and disassociated remains of a single subadult individual, a partial skeleton lacking the cranium but including the lower jaw, a single neck vertebra, most of the back and tail and the majority of the frontlimb and hindlimb elements.

## Classification

In 2007, Xu et al. assigned *Gigantoraptor* to the Oviraptoridae, in a basal position. The anatomy of Gigantoraptor includes the diagnostic features of the Oviraptorosaurs. However, it also includes several features found in more derived eumaniraptoran dinosaurs, such as a frontlimb/hindlimb ratio of 60%, a lack of expansion of the distal scapula and the lack of a fourth trochanter on the thighbone. Despite its size, *Gigantoraptor* would thus have been more bird-like than its smaller oviraptorosaurian relatives.

In 2010, a second analysis of *Gigantoraptor* relationships found it to be a member of the Caenagnathidae rather than an oviraptorid. Phylogenetic analysis conducted by Lamanna et al. (2014), supported that *Gigantoraptor* was a basal caenagnathid. The cladogram below follows an analysis by Longrich et al. in 2013, which found *Gigantoraptor* to be a Caenagnathid.

## Paleobiology

The diet of *Gigantoraptor* is uncertain. Although some oviraptorosaurs, such as *Caudipteryx* and *Incisivosaurus*, are thought to have been mostly herbivorous, *Gigantoraptor* had long hind legs with proportions that allowed for fast movement (it was probably more nimble than the larger and less agile *Tarbosaurus*), and large claws, a combination that is not usually found in herbivores of this size. Paul suggested that *Gigantoraptor* was also a herbivore and used its speed to escape predators.

## Paleoenvironment

*Gigantoraptor* is known from the Iren Dabasu Formation of Inner Mongolia. This formation has been dated to 95.8 ± 6.2 million years ago based on U–Pb and stratigraphic analyses. The environments around this formation were highly humid, existing as a large braided river valley with floodplains. A semi-arid climate is also indicated by caliche-based sedimentation. The Iren Dabasu Formation had extensive vegetation and foliage, evidenced in the paleosol development, the numerous herbivorous dinosaurs remains that were found in both the river channel and the floodplain sediments. A rich diversity of charophytes and ostracods inhabited the floodplain systems.

The dinosaurian fauna of this formation includes the fast-running tyrannosauroid *Alectrosaurus*, the ornithomimosaur *Archaeornithomimus*, the therizinosaurids *Erliansaurus* and *Neimongosaurus*, the sauropod *Sonidosaurus*, and hadrosauroids *Bactrosaurus* and *Gilmoreosaurus*. Both Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh formations have been correlated on the basis of their similar vertebrate fossil record. This correlation may be further supported by the presence of a giant, *Gigantoraptor*-sized caenagnathid in the Bayan Shireh Formation. The presence of the Bayan Shireh caenagnathid and *Gigantoraptor* in fluvial-based sedimentation formations like the Iren Dabasu and Bayan Shireh formations suggest a preference over mesic habitats in giant oviraptorosaur species, rather than xeric habitats.

## Appearance in other media

### *Jurassic Park*

* *Gigantoraptor* is mentioned in the database entry for *Archaeornithomimus* in Jurassic World Evolution 2

## References

General Description

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