Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small carnivorous theropod dinosaur of the genus Eoraptor of the Triassic Period, characterized by a grasping hand and numerous sharp teeth. Eoraptor is one of the earliest known dinosaurs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a theropod dinosaur of the genus Eoraptor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Ēōraptor, genus name : eo– + Latin raptor, one who seizes; see raptor.]

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Examples

  • But after detailed cleaning and CT scans of its skull and skeleton, new features were discovered that link eoraptor instead with the giant long-necked herbivores called sauropodomorphs, familiar to many as the group including "brontosaurus."

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • When they first found the fossilized skeleton, the researchers from Argentina and the USA thought it was another eoraptor.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • The discovery really "boots out eoraptor the dinosaur from that long held position," says Holtz.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • For dinosaur specialists, the real "jaw dropper," according to Sereno, is the comparison between eodromaeus and its equally small companion, eoraptor, a species Sereno and colleagues named in 1993.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • It was there that they first found eoraptor, ee-oh-RAP-tor or "dawn plunderer," in 1991, which some believed was a common ancestor to all dinosaurs.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • "But I started measuring it in my lab and I realized 'Oh wow, this isn't eoraptor at all,' " says Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, one of the authors of the paper announcing the discovery in this week's edition of the journal Science.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • The new finding makes clear that eodromaeus roamed the planet earlier than eoraptor.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • Back then, eoraptor was tapped as a small predator, an early theropod like eodromaeus.

    New dog-sized dinosaur discovered 2011

  • Perhaps an eoraptor snapping at panphagia to show the split between close relatives theropods and sauropodmorphs.

    Life's Time Capsule: me, 3D and Plateosaurus... davidmaas 2009

  • It was there that they first found eoraptor, ee-oh-RAP-tor or "dawn plunderer," in 1991, which some believed was a common ancestor to all dinosaurs.

    USATODAY.com News 2011

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