Stolen Dinosaur Skeleton Turns Out To Be Swimming Raptor

A team of scientists has described a new dinosaur species that could both walk and swim. "We always thought dinosaurs were terrestrial, but now it is very clear for the first time that there were also swimming dinosaurs", says palaeontologist Pascal Godefroit of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Halszkaraptor escuilliei had modified forelimbs that likely allowed him to manoeuvre in water like a penguin. With its swan-like neck and long 'fish-eater-teeth', it could pick prey out of the water. The predator, almost 80 centimetres long from head to tail, is closely related to the iconic Velociraptor . The new aquatic raptor species is described in Nature . Poached The exceptionally well-preserved fossil is 71 to 75 million years old (Late Cretaceous).