Chilantaisaurus

What it was like

Chilantaisaurus was a large carnivorous theropod known mainly from an incomplete skeleton, including a very large upper arm bone but almost no other limb material. That single bone is among the biggest arm bones known from any theropod, hinting at a powerfully built animal, though its overall size remains hard to pin down without more of the skeleton.

Its classification has shifted repeatedly since it was first described. Different studies have linked it to spinosaurids, to coelurosaurs, and to carcharodontosaurians, and the debate over where it belongs is still not settled.

Its world

Chilantaisaurus lived from about 94 to 84 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its remains come from the Ulansuhai and Tangshang formations, laid down by winding rivers across a floodplain.

It shared this landscape with the ostrich-like Sinornithomimus and the thick-skulled Sinocephale, both known from the same rock layers.

How it was found

Hu named Chilantaisaurus in 1964, based on a partial skeleton found in China. Two fossil finds are known in total, still not enough to settle its relationship to genera such as Neovenator and Fukuiraptor, both proposed as close relatives in different studies.