Santanaraptor

Santana robber (or Santana thief)

• Santana · Portuguese (place name) · Santana Formation, the rock unit where it was found
• raptor · Latin · robber, plunderer, thief

Santanaraptor is named after the Santana Formation in Brazil, where the only known specimen was found, combined with the Latin word for "robber" or "thief". The "raptor" ending is commonly used for small to mid-sized predatory theropods. The type species, S. placidus, has a species name meaning "peaceful" or "calm".

Named by

Kellner

Year named

1999

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Albian

Found in

Romualdo Member, Santana Formation, Araripe Basin, Ceará, northeastern Brazil

Known from a single, partial juvenile skeleton, notable for preserved traces of soft tissue such as muscle fibres and blood vessels. It is a small coelurosaurian theropod. Its exact position is debated, with some analyses placing it as a basal tyrannosauroid. The Romualdo Member is often dated to the Aptian–Albian, and the stage given here is approximate.