Dornraptor

Dornraptor
Temporal range: Late Sinemurian,
Known fossil material
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Averostra
Genus: Dornraptor
Species:
D. normani
Binomial name
Dornraptor normani
Baron, 2024
Synonyms
  • "Merosaurus newmani" Pickering, 1995

Dornraptor (meaning "Dorset robber or thief") is an extinct genus of averostran, possibly stem tetanuran, theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (Late Sinemurian) of Charmouth, Dorset, England. The genus contains a single species, D. normani, known from a fragmentary knee joint and femur that were initially described by Sir Richard Owen as belonging to the early armored dinosaur Scelidosaurus. Dornraptor lived in what is now England, along other theropods like Dracoraptor and Sarcosaurus.

Dornraptor was described as having come from the Blue Lias Formation in 2024, although previous authors proposed a corrected locality of the Charmouth Mudstone Formation.