Vectiraptor is an extinct genus of dromaeosaurid that lived in the Isle of Wight during the Early Cretaceous.[1]
History[]
It was initially discovered and prepared by amateur MIck Green in 2004 from the Wessex Formation, below the Compton Bay cliffs. The holotype is IWCMS. 2021.31.1-3 (two dorsals). with sacrum IWCMS 2021.31.2 discovered by Nick Chase and referred. These finds were several meters apart, representing an adult that was 20-30 years old based on the growth lines at the bone cortex. They were collected and donated to the Isle of Wight County Museum Service. Longrich et al. (2021) named it, with the generic epithet meaning "the Isle of Wight thief" and the specific epithet after Mick Green. Large teeth from Wight, IWCMS.2002.1, IWCMS.2002.3, IWCMS.2002.4 and BMNH R 16510, were considered by the describers to belong to this taxon but did not refer them. These teeth are sometimes referred to as velociraptorine, contrary to formal opinion[2][3].
Description[]
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Internal vertebral cemellate pneumaticity (left) and a posterior dorsal (right).
Vectiraptor is known from dorsal vertebrae with a partial sacrum, which bear features (short and massive vertebrae, tall neural spines and long-stalked ribs) typical of Dromaeosauridae. The dorsals are short and have pleurocoels, camellate pneumatization, parapophyses that are stalked and elongate neural canals. The neural spine is tall and bears scars that supported largeligaments in life. The sacral centra do not have pleurocoels, but instead have large neural canals and foramina that suggest pneumatization. These characters suggest it was a large, derived eudromaeosaur that likely resembled Early Cretaceous North American taxa of the latter. This would suggest a faunal interchange between Europe and North America. A usually deep triangular depression under the side process is subdivided by a ridge and the neural spines are robust with rough depressions that attached ligaments, which are identified as autapomorphies. Pneumatized vertebrae supported the respiratory system, with the diapophysal fossa invading the neural arch, expanded neural canals that embay the top of the centrum, sacrals lacking pleurocoels with a spongy texture and a neural canal that was very wide and may have contained an air chamber that was accessed by the spaces between the partially-fused neural arches are other features identified[4][3].
Classification[]
Large size, short dorsals, air sac openings in the posterior dorsals and tall-and-narrow-from-the-side neural spines with ligament scars are indicative of relation to Eudromaeosauria. This shows a North American-European faunal interchange[3].
Vectiraptor with other contemporaneous animals.
Credit: Nick Longrich.
Paleoecology[]
Vectiraptor was a relatively smaller than contemporaneous theropods such as Neovenator, Baryonyx, Ceratosuchops, Calamospondylus and Eotyrannus[4].
References[]