Eoraptor was discovered on the basis of a small skeleton found during Dr. Paul Sereno's expedition to Argentina in 1991. It was considered the first member of the predatory branch of the dinosaur tree. These creatures lived during the late Triassic period, about 228 million years ago, in the region that is now northwestern Argentina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a small, lightly built dinosaur that walked on two legs. Eoraptor means \"thief of the dawn\" in reference to its status as an animal that lived near the very \"dawn\" of the dinosaurs. It was an omnivorous dinosaur; it ate everything from green foliage to small bugs and meat. In addition, it had also been a scavenger! It had a combination of leaf-shaped and blade-shaped teeth, and some of its teeth were curved and saw-edged, capable of cutting through tough palm fronds and meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On each arm, it had large claws and presumably they were used to handle prey. Eoraptor's forelimbs were only half the length of its hind limbs. It was a fast runner when catching prey; it used claws and teeth to tear the victim apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eoraptor comes from the Greek word eos (\u03b7\u03c9\u03c2), meaning \"dawn\", a reference to its primitive nature and the Latin word raptor, meaning \"plunderer\" or in short \"plunderer of the dawn\".
Eoraptor was a small theropod dinosaur that was first discovered in 1991 by University of San Juan paleontologist Paul Sereno.
Eoraptor was one of the earliest known dinosaurs that lived during the Late Triassic in Western Gondwana, in what is now northwestern Argentina. It lived approximately 231 to 228 million years ago.
It can grow up to about 1 meter in length with an estimated weight of about 10 kilograms.<\/p> <\/div> <\/div>\n\t\n\t