The Jurassic era saw the rise of some of world’s most deadly carnivore dinosaurs. Luckily we didn’t walk the earth along with them back then but other dinosaurs that did were terrorized by them.
One of such deadly breeds were the raptors. Fast, skilled and deadly, raptors were amongst the most ferocious carnivores to have lived on earth.
Let us learn 10 interesting facts about Achillobator and find out what they really looked like and what they ate.
At a glance
—Lived: 98-83 million years ago.
—Food: Meat.
—Species: A. giganticus.
Facts About Achillobator: 1-5
1. Achillobator is a name derived from the combination of Mongolian and Greek words and literally means ‘Achilles hero’. It is pronounced as ah-KILL-oh-bate-ore.
2. Achillobator belonged to the raptor family of dinosaurs and was a ferocious carnivore.
3. Weighing anywhere between 500 to 1,000 pounds, this carnivore could grow up to a length of 20 feet.
4. Achillobator dwelt in the Central Asian plains (currently Mongolia) during the Late Cretaceous period, which was around 98 to 83 million years ago.
5. This raptor was bipedal (walked/ran on two feet) and had a moderate build. It was a ground dwelling active predator.
6. Its most deadly weapon was located on its second toe in form of sickle-shaped enlarged claw.
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Facts About Achillobator: 6-10
7. The name was derived from Greek warrior ‘Achilles’ and Mongolian word called ‘baatar’ which means hero. The name was selected because of the Achilles tendon connecting the sickle-shaped claw to the second toe.
8. Yes Achillobator was a raptor but was pretty different from other raptors like Velociraptor and Deinonychus. Achillobator had a very weird hip alignment that led many scientists to believe that it was a completely new form of dinosaur.
9. Achillobator was probably the forefather of modern birds. Like many raptors from the Late Cretaceous period, the Achillobator is often illustrated as a dinosaur with feather coats. Though the fossils don’t really indicate the presence of feathers, this depiction is purely out of assumption.
10. Achillobator fossil was first discovered in Russian and Mongolian field expeditions in 1989 by Burkhant but was named after a decade in 1999. Three scientists named the species. One of them was a Mongolian Paleontologist by the name Altangerel Perle and the other two Paleontologists were American by the names Jim Clark and Mark Norell.