Raptorex

robber king

• raptor · Latin · robber, plunderer
• rex · Latin · king

The name combines the Latin "raptor", meaning robber or plunderer, with "rex", meaning king. It echoes Tyrannosaurus rex, "tyrant lizard king". The name suits a small, early tyrannosauroid that was described as having the body plan of its giant relatives.

Named by

Sereno et al.

Year named

2009

Found in

Reported from Inner Mongolia, China. The specimen was collected privately, so its exact origin is uncertain.

The type species is Raptorex kriegsteini. It was originally described as an Early Cretaceous tyrannosauroid, about 125 million years old. Later work (Fowler et al., 2011) argued that the specimen is a juvenile Tarbosaurus from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. If so, Raptorex would be a synonym of Tarbosaurus. The question is disputed, and the specimen's unclear provenance adds to the doubt. The "accepted" status here reflects that it is still widely listed as a genus, with this caveat.