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Eoraptor

Eoraptor lunensis was one of the world's first dinosaurs. It was a two-legged meat-eater that lived about 230 million years past in the northwestern region of Argentina. Its name means "dawn plunderer from the Valley of the Moon", where it was at first discovered. Paleontologists believe the Eoraptor resembles the common forebear of all dinosaurs. It is known from several well preserved skeletons.

Description and behavior

It had a thin body that grew to about 1 meter (3 feet) long, and weighed about 10 kilograms (22 pounds). It ran digitigrades, upright on its hind legs. Its weapons were only half the length of its legs, and had five fingers on every hand. Three of those fingers, the longest of the five, ended in large claws and were used to handle prey. Scientists have surmised that the fourth and fifth fingers were also tiny to be of any use in hunting.

Eoraptor almost certainly ate mostly small animals. It was a swift sprinter, and winning catching its prey, it would use claws and teeth to tear the prey apart.

Early dinosaur

The bones of this prehistoric dinosaur were first discovered in 1991, and by 1993 it had been determined to be one of the first of the "terrible lizards" (dinosaurs). Its age was strong-minded by several factors, including its lack of specialized predatory features. Unlike later carnivores, it didn't have a descending joint in its lower jaw to hold prey with. Also, only some of its teeth were bent and saw-edged. All of the teeth in a modern predator's mouth are shaped so.

Eoraptor belonged to a major collection of dinosaurs called saurischians, or lizard-hipped dinosaurs. Their hip structures are alike to that of the modern lizard.

Eoraptor is more antique than even the Herrerasaurus, and only some prosauropods recently exposed in Madagascar are older.