The Ridge Ripper- new Australian theropod

Adam Khor

It seemingly is a relative to Megaraptor, larger than Australovenator and described by a paleontologist as "a ripper of a dinosaur", which used its enormous claws to "catch and slash" at its prey.

Now if this hand isn´t impressive I don´t know what is:



The Ridge Ripper would be similar in size to Allosaurus (in the article they say four meters long, but I'm sure its a mistake- it must be forty feet, 12 meters, and three meters tall at the hip. (Australovenator was around 6 meters tall, making this new predator twice as big). It has been suggested that this may actually be Rapator, a mystery dino whose fossilized remains (a hand bone) was found in the same area, but this hasn´t been confirmed and everything seems to indicate it's a brand new dino.

http://www.theridgenews.com.au/news/local/news/general/huge-dinosaur-bone-found-in-collection/2481913.aspx?storypage=1

Find of the day no doubt!

Galvasean

Based on that hand it looks like it belongs among the heavy weights of theropods, somewhere between 30 and 40 feet is my guess.

Galvasean

Any indication of when it lived?

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Any indication of when it lived?

Mid Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago