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Irritator

Irritator

Pronunciation:: irr-it-ate-or
Name meaning:: 'irritator'

Irritator

© Andrey Atuchin

large theropod silhouette

Type of dinosaur:: large theropod
Length:: 6.5m

Diet:: carnivorous
When it lived:: Early Cretaceous, 112-99 million years ago
Found in:: Brazil

Irritator was quite like Spinosaurus. It is known only from a skull, so the sail is a guess.

The type species, Irritator challengeri was named after Professor Challenger from Arthur Conan Doyle's novel 'The Lost World', published in 1912.

Taxonomic details

Taxonomy:: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Tetanurae, Spinosauroidea, Spinosauridae, Spinosaurinae
Named by:: Martill, Cruickshank, Frey, Small and Clarke (1996)
Type species:: challengeri

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