While our star of the show today is a ‘raptor’ or dromaeosaurid, Unenlagia (which, by the way, means “half-bird” in the Mapuche language), belongs to a completely different branch than Velociraptor or Dromeo. To be honest, I was thinking of Utahraptor for a ‘U’ dinosaur but we always keep talking about the raptors north of the equator and say nothing about a whole family in South America and Australia.
Unenlagia was an unenlagiine (very creative names) from Argentina and was closely related to Neuquenraptor and Buitreraptor, who you would have absolutely no reason to know about (unless you are a professional paleontologist). The unenlagiines were very different from other dromaeosaurs in that they had longer legs, a generally slender build, and a long, narrow head unlike the robust and blocky heads of Utahraptor.
Unenlagia was first thought to be a bird; there is still a lot of debate on whether it is a bird or a dromaeosaur or something in between. Some studies put Unenlagiidae as its own family, while others place it in the Dromaeosauridae as Unenlagiinae. One of the largest raptors also belongs to the Unenlagiinae, Austroraptor. Its size was comparable with that of Utahraptor, Dakotaraptor, and Achillobator, the largest dromaeosaurs known from the two other branches, Dromaeosaurinae and Velociraptorinae. However, Unenlagia was a medium-size dromaeosaur and was not as large. While the group mainly inhabited South America, fossils have been found in Madagascar (the flying, small Rahonavis) and France (Pyroraptor – a dinosaur that appeared in Jurassic World: Dominion).
Anay Ganesh 