Open Paleo

Halszkaraptor

Cau et al., 2017 HALSH-kuh-RAP-tor /ˈhɑːlʃkəræptər/

Halszka's seizer; named in honor of Polish paleontologist Halszka Osmólska, combined with Greek raptor (seizer)

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Halszkaraptor is a genus of waterfowl-like halszkaraptorine dinosaurs from Mongolia that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. It contains only one known species, Halszkaraptor escuilliei.

Diagnosis

  1. Platyrostral premaxilla forming 32% of snout length and bearing 11 teeth
  2. Neck forms 50% of snout-sacrum length, longest among Mesozoic paravians
  3. Rod-like jugal with ascending process excluded from orbital margin, forms only 10% of postorbital bar
  4. Postzygapophyses on cervicals 2-5 fused medially forming single lobate processes
  5. Ridge-like cervical neural spines restricted to 2nd-5th vertebrae
  6. Tuber-like neural spines in tail restricted to 1st-3rd vertebrae
  7. Flattened ulna with sharp posterior margin

Species

Halszkaraptor escuilliei Cau et al., 2017

Type species

Named for François Escuillié, the fossil dealer who identified the specimen as new to science and made it available to researchers for formal description.

Holotype
MPC-D 102/109 , Paleontological Center, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Material
Nearly complete skeleton
Horizon
Bayn Dzak Member, Djadokhta Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Ukhaa Tolgod, Ömnögovi, Mongolia The holotype was poached and left Mongolia illegally, so its provenance is reconstructed from the specimen and its matrix rather than recorded in the field. Cau and colleagues (2017) give the Bayn Dzak Member at Ukhaa Tolgod, which is not the locality the member is named for. Moutrille and colleagues (2025), comparing the matrix of a second poached skeleton with this one, hold that a different Djadokhta locality such as Bayan Zag cannot be excluded.

References

  1. Cau, A.; Beyrand, V.; Voeten, D. F. A. E.; Fernandez, V.; Tafforeau, P.; Stein, K.; Barsbold, R.; Tsogtbaatar, K.; Currie, P. J.; Godefroit, P. (2017). Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs. Nature 552(7685): 395-399. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/nature24679 cau2017a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c
  3. Moutrille, L.; Cau, A.; Chinzorig, T.; Escuillié, F.; Tsogtbaatar, K.; Ganzorig, B.; Mallet, C.; Godefroit, P. (2025). A new bird-like dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia with extremely robust hands supports niche partitioning among velociraptorines. Historical Biology 38(6): 1987-2018. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/08912963.2025.2530148

    Holds that the holotype may have come from a Djadokhta locality other than Ukhaa Tolgod, such as Bayan Zag.

    moutrille2025a