New Giant Raptor the Largest Ever with Wing Feathers

A giant, feathered raptor dubbed "Dakotaraptor" (Dakotaraptor steini), has been uncovered in South Dakota's famous Hell Creek Formation.

The discovery was made by a research team led by Palm Beach Museum of Natural History Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology Robert DePalma.

The super-raptor lived some 66 million years ago and was about 17 feet long, making it one of the largest ever found and the largest with confirmed wing feathers.

"This Cretaceous period raptor would have been lightly built and probably just as agile as the vicious, smaller theropods, such as the Velociraptor," De Palma said, in a statement announcing the find.

The fossils indicated the presence of "quill knobs" (see photo above) pointing to where feathers would have been attached to the creature's forearms. The knobs are "our first clear evidence for feather quills on a large dromaeosaurid forearm," DePalma and his team wrote in a paper detailing their findings.

In addition to the wonder of the giant raptor's size in its own right, the find helps scientists sketch a clearer picture of the pecking order at the time.

"This new predatory dinosaur also fills the body size gap between smaller theropods and large tyrannosaurs that lived at this time," said University of Kansas paleontologist and study co-author David Burnham.

DePalma and his colleagues have just published their research on the new raptor in the journal Paleontological Contributions.

From Discovery News