Episode 32 is all aboutFukuiraptor, a carnosaur first thought to be a raptor.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Fukuiraptor, whose name means “Fukui thief”
• Type species is Fukiraptor kitadaniensis
• Type species was possibly a juvenile (around 4.2 m long), (14 ft), 2m (6’6) tall
• Found in Japan, lived in the Cretaceous
• Although Fukiraptor is a carnosaur (like Allosaurus), at first it was thought to be a raptor because when it was first found, one of its large claws on its hand was thought to be the “killing claw” on its toe, similar to other dromaeosaurs. But eventually scientists determined that the claw belonged on its hand.
• At first scientists thought the type specimen was a juvenile, now they think it may have been an adult, since other specimens have since been found in the same area, and some were juveniles that were a lot smaller
• The theory is that Fukiraptor may have been small, or it may have been small at a young age and would have grown much bigger over the years, like tyrannosaurids (a newer analysis found it may be a tyrannosaurid)
• Fukiraptor is the most complete (and only) theropod found in Japan, officially
• Holotype is a partial skeleton (jaw fragments, teeth, vertebrae, bones from arms and hind limbs)
• In 2000, Philip Currie (University of Alberta) and Yoichi Azume (Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum) described Fukuiraptor in a paper
• Some of the teeth had blood grooves, which were found on Fukuiraptor teeth but not other theropod teeth from the Kitadani quarry
• Teeth were similar to other carnosaurs, and had small serrations
• Compared to herbivore fossils in the Kitadani quarry, Fukuiraptor bones were common
• Because there are more theropods in the quarry (which is rare), there may have been “some unusual circumstances involved in the genesis of the site”, For example because so many juvenile Fukuiraptors were found, it may have been near a nesting site (another example of a quarry with lots of carnivore bones is the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry, which has more than 70 Allosaurus individuals and may have been a predator trap); other sites with lots of carnivores were due to drought (all died at once) or they raised the possibility that they hunted in packs. But it’s unclear why there are so many theropods in Kitadani Quarry
• Can see Fukuiraptor as an animatronic dinosaur in the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum in Japan (along with 10 other animatronic dinosaurs)
• Animatronic Fukuiraptor blinks and moves its head, as well as poses threateningly
• Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum opened in 2000
• Admission is 1200 JPY (~$10 USD)
• One of the largest dinosaur museums in Japan, located in Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture (center of dinosaur research in Japan)
• Museum has four floors
• Near the Kitadani Quarry, large excavation site, possibly one of the largest dinosaur quarries in the world
• Excavation site has bones, eggshell and footprints
• Fukuiraptor is a megaraptoran neovenatorid allosaurid (but megaraptorans may be tyrannosaurids), as of 2012 when Fernando Novas and colleagues
• Megaraptora is part of Neovenatoridae (according to 2010 and 2012 studies), making neovenatorids one of the last types of allosaurids
• At least one megaraptoran, Orkoraptor, lived at the end of the Cretaceous
• Neovenatoridae is a family of allosaurids. They had short, wide shoulder blades
• Fun Fact: Trillions of eggs were laid during the Mesozoic Era.