SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah paleontologist says the headlines surrounding a new dinosaur discovery in Argentina, which claims to have unearthed the largest raptor ever found, are simply not true.
The Utahraptor has long been recognized as the world's largest raptor, but a team digging in Patagonia recently discovered the remains of a dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago and were heralded as the largest ever recorded from the raptor family.
However, the new claims can confuse the average dinosaur fan.
Dr. James Kirkland, a paleontologist with the Utah Geological Survey, told FOX 13 News that the new discovery is closer to an Allosaurus, which is a little smaller than a Tyrannosaurus rex.
"[An Allosaurus'] relatives were all big, bipedal, stocking carnivores that would use their hands to grab onto something, and probably their jaws to dispatch their prey," explained Kirkland. "Where a Utahraptor would kick it to death and/or use the claws to climb up on it as like ice climbing spikes; climb up on a big animal to rip out its throat!"
The new dinosaur discovered in Patagonia is named Maip macrothorax. While Utahraptors were about 23 feet long, the Maip macrothorax found recently was 32 feet long.
