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Irritator[]

Irritator was a large theropod dinosaur from Brazil. It lived in the Araripe Basin in the Early Cretaceous Period.

Irritator was a carnivore, an animal that eats flesh from other animals. Its slender jaws is filled with conical pointed teeth better adapted for gripping prey rather than tear or slice flesh. This was a fish-eating dinosaur, but it would've been opportunistic in hunting or eating other kinds of prey like pterosaurs.

There is only one species known from the fossil record, Irritator challengeri. It was described and named in 1996. There is another spinosaurid from the same time and place as Irritator lived called Angaturama limai. It was described in the same year and in the same month of February after the I. challengeri. However, this dinosaur might actually be the same species as I. challengeri. More fossils are needed to solve this scientific debate.

Irritator was a spinosaurid dinosaur or a species of the family Spinosauridae. Spinosaurids were large and giant carnivorous theropods with crocodile like heads and teeth. The North African Spinosaurus and the South American Oxalaia are members of the family Spinosauridae.

From the holotype specimen, it's been estimated that this I. challengeri was a huge 6.5 meters long. While the holotype of A. limai has been estimated that this individual was also huge but bigger at 8.3 meters long.


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