Fukuiraptor’s one of those dinosaurs that you’ve never heard of, but it has an interesting history. From the name alone, one might think that this was a dromeosaurid related to Velociraptor. That’s actually what people thought back when it was discovered in Japan. However, it was actually from another group, the Megaraptora, who were distantly related to T-rex.
Fukuiraptor belonged to a family called Megaraptora, which were actually related to tyrannosaurs like T-rex. The reason they’re often mistaken for raptors is because when Fukuiraptor was discovered, the bones got jumbled up. It had a big claw on its hand, but people thought that the big claw was from the foot, as in Velociraptor. However, later research showed that this group had big claws on their hands and normal feet.
Fukuiraptor lived in the Early Cretaceous, around 120 mya. This was a time when carnivorous dinos just exploded in variety. A ton of new families arose, like the raptors, spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, tyrannosaurids, megaraptorans, and ornithomimosaurs.
During this time, the ecosystem changed rapidly. For the first time, there were flowering plants, and the tall conifers that dominated the Jurassic were restricted to the north. New herbivores came during this time, such as iguanodonts a family of ornithischians that came in the Jurassic Period and really expanded in the Cretaceous. Sauropods became restricted to South America and Antarctica. Therefore, there were a lot of new predators with new adaptations for killing new animals. Big claws and a slender build was best for taking down iguanodonts, it seems.
Learn more about dinosaurs at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgXPx4KJjhfAIH82YMnqmZg
Anay Ganesh 