In 2015, a study by Victoria Megan Arbour et al. The elements originally identified as the furcula of Dakotaraptor were U- to V-shaped, suggested by the describers to be similar to many other dromaeosaurids, such as Velociraptor, and even the large spinosaurid theropod Suchomimus. Other referred fossils are KUVP 156045 (an isolated tooth) and NCSM 13170 (a third supposed furcula that was later identified as not belonging to Dakotaraptor). These fossils are part of the collection of The Palm Beach Museum of Natural History. These included the specimens PBMNH.P.10.115.T (a right shinbone), PBMNH.P.10.118.T (a connected left astragalus and calcaneum), and KUVP 152429 (originally identified as a furcula, but now also excluded from the known remains of Dakotaraptor). Said furcula was later shown to be an element from a trionychid turtle shell, parts of which are shown at the rightĪpart from the remains of the holotype, bones were discovered in the site that also belonged to Dakotaraptor, but which represented a more gracile morph. Proposed furcula (A and G, left) compared with other theropod dinosaurs. An assigned furcula was later excluded from the specimen. It contains a piece of a back vertebra, ten tail vertebrae, both humeri, both ulnae, both radii, the first and second right metacarpals, three claws of the left hand, a right thighbone, both shinbones, a left astragalus bone, a left calcaneum, the left second, third and fourth metatarsal, the right fourth metatarsal, and the second and third claw of the right foot. It consists of a partial skeleton of an adult individual, albeit without a skull. The holotype, PBMNH.P.10.113.T, was found in a sandstone layer of the upper Hell Creek Formation, dating to the late Maastrichtian. Dakotaraptor was one of eighteen dinosaur taxa from 2015 to be described in open access or free-to-read journals. The specific name, steini, honors paleontologist Walter W. The generic name, Dakotaraptor, combines a reference to South Dakota and the Dakota people with the Latin word raptor, meaning "plunderer". Burnham, Larry Dean Martin, Peter Lars Larson, and Robert Thomas Bakker. In 2015, the type species Dakotaraptor steini was named and described by Robert A. Subsequently, the same site produced additional dromaeosaurid remains. In 2005, paleontologist Robert DePalma in Harding County, South Dakota discovered a fluvial bonebed bearing the remains of a variety of dinosaurian and non-dinosaurian remains, which yielded a partial skeleton attributed by DePalma to a large dromaeosaurid. Discovery and naming Skeletal composite showing the known elements steini place it in a variety of positions within Dromaeosauridae. Elements of the holotype and referred specimens were later found to belong to trionychid turtles and further analysis of potential non-dromaeosaurid affinities of the holotype and referred material have not yet been conducted. steini were discovered in a multi-species bonebed. The remains have been found in the Maastrichtian-aged Hell Creek Formation, dated to the very end of the Mesozoic era, making Dakotaraptor one of the last surviving dromaeosaurids. Dakotaraptor (meaning “thief from Dakota”) is a potentially chimaeric genus of large dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous period.
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