Buitreraptor

Buitreraptor; Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,; ~98–97 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Reconstructed skeleton of the holotype MPCA 245 at the Carlos Ameghino Provincial Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Family:	†Unenlagiidae
Subfamily:	†Unenlagiinae
Genus:	†Buitreraptor; Makovicky et al. 2005
Type species
	†Buitreraptor gonzalezorum; Makovicky et al. 2005

Buitreraptor is a small dromaeosaur from the Cretaceous of Argentina. It was about four to five feet long (1.5 metres).[1]

Buitreraptor (front) and Deinonychus (behind) at the Field Museum of Natural History

Buitreraptor has a slender, flat, extremely elongated snout. Its jaws have many small teeth which lack meat-tearing serrations or cutting edges. They are grooved, strongly recurved and flattened.[2] This probably meant it ate quite small animals, like lizards and mammals.

Since its close relatives had feathers, it is likely that Buitreraptor also was feathered.

References

Paul G.S. 2010. The Princeton field guide to dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, 139.
Gianechini F.A.; Makovicky P.J; Apesteguía S. (2011). "The teeth of the unenlagiine theropod Buitreraptor from the Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina, and the unusual dentition of the Gondwanan dromaeosaurids". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56 (2): 279–290. doi:10.4202/app.2009.0127. S2CID 62811731.

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[1] Paul G.S. 2010. The Princeton field guide to dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, 139.

[2] Gianechini F.A.; Makovicky P.J; Apesteguía S. (2011). "The teeth of the unenlagiine theropod Buitreraptor from the Cretaceous of Patagonia, Argentina, and the unusual dentition of the Gondwanan dromaeosaurids". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56 (2): 279–290. doi:10.4202/app.2009.0127. S2CID 62811731.