Life restoration of what the creature associated with Dakotaraptor MAY have looked like if it was indeed an unenlagiine. (I included it's other misidentified parts too if you know what to look for!) |
Since the initial discovery and publication, many the fossils associated with Dakotaraptor have, under more close examination, turned out to be from other animals. The original bones weren't found articulated in any sort of death position, but were more jumbled up in what likely used to be the bottom of a body of water, so it makes sense that multiple different dead animals ended up there over time and were eventually fossilized. Some of the bones turned out to belong to the large oviraptorosaur, Anzu, as well as Tyrannosaurus, and even a prehistoric Soft-shelled turtle, called Axestemys.
That being said there are still a few bones that were associated with Dakotaraptor that as of now appear to be from some kind of large dromaeosaur. More recent peer reviewed research suggests Dakotaraptor may actually belong to the unenlagiine branch of dromaeosaurs, the group known for having very long narrow snouts, based on what little material there is. Until these bones can be formally studied further, we may never know for sure.
References
Photograph of what was originally thought to be the "killer" retractable toe claw of Dakotaraptor that has since been recognized as possibly being from a Tyrannosaurus hand. |
That being said there are still a few bones that were associated with Dakotaraptor that as of now appear to be from some kind of large dromaeosaur. More recent peer reviewed research suggests Dakotaraptor may actually belong to the unenlagiine branch of dromaeosaurs, the group known for having very long narrow snouts, based on what little material there is. Until these bones can be formally studied further, we may never know for sure.
References
Arbour, V.M.; Zanno, L.E.; Larson, D.W.; Evans, D.C.; Sues, H. (2015). "The furculae of the dromaeosaurid dinosaur Dakotaraptor steini are trionychid turtle entoplastra". PeerJ. 3: e1957.
DePalma, Robert A.; Burnham, David A.; Martin, Larry D.; Larson, Peter L.; Bakker, Robert T. (2015). "The First Giant Raptor (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae) from the Hell Creek Formation.".Paleontological Contributions (14).
Jasinski, Steven E.; Sullivan, Robert M.; Dodson, Peter (2020-03-26). "New Dromaeosaurid Dinosaur (Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from New Mexico and Biodiversity of Dromaeosaurids at the end of the Cretaceous". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 5105.
Hartman, S.; Mortimer, M.; Wahl, W. R.; Lomax, D. R.; Lippincott, J.; Lovelace, D. M. (2019). "A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight". PeerJ. 7: e7247.
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