Austroraptor, Spinosaur-Mimic

When this animal was first announced several years ago, the peculiar jaw and skull features suggested it was highly reminiscent of spinosaurs, dinosaurs not uncommon it would seem in the Southern Hemisphere. Hailing from the Late Cretaceous of northern Argentina, in South America, the fossils represent a dromaeosaurid-like animal on par with the rather more famous Utahraptor from the USA, but also the less famous but no less large Achillobator from Mongolia.

The long skull and several features of the vertebrae connect it to Buitreraptor, also seen here: [link] , as well as the large (not not this large) Unenlagia.

Unlike these animals, Austroraptor has very, very short arms, suggesting this animal was a head-first predator, more adept at snatching and grabbing with its jaws than with its hands. And this may be one of the most curious things about it, when it all comes down to it.