Question 1

How do you say Unenlagia?

Accepted Answer

Unenlagia is pronounced oon-en-LAH-gee-ah. Break it into four parts and stress the third syllable: OON, then en, then LAH, then gee-ah. A good memory trick is to say 'moon' without the m, then 'en-la-gear' without the r. The Natural History Museum in London confirms this pronunciation, and once you have it, it actually rolls off the tongue pretty smoothly.

Question 2

What does Unenlagia mean?

Accepted Answer

The name Unenlagia means 'half bird' in the Mapuche language, which is still spoken by around 250,000 people in Patagonia and Chile today. Paleontologist Fernando Novas chose this name deliberately when he described the dinosaur in 1997 because its skeleton was so bird-like that calling it a half-bird felt scientifically accurate. The two parts of the name are unen, meaning half, and lagia, meaning bird. It is one of the few dinosaur names drawn from an indigenous South American language rather than Latin or Greek.

Question 3

How big was Unenlagia?

Accepted Answer

Unenlagia was not a giant. Scientists estimate it was about 7.5 feet long, roughly 2.3 meters, which is about the length of a large dining table. It probably weighed around 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms, making it roughly as heavy as a medium-sized dog. Think of a much bigger, feathered, and significantly more dangerous version of a turkey and you are in the right ballpark.

Question 4

Was Unenlagia related to Velociraptor?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Unenlagia was a distant cousin of Velociraptor. Both belonged to the dromaeosaurid family, sometimes called raptors, but they were quite different animals. Velociraptor lived in the deserts of Mongolia and Central Asia, while Unenlagia prowled the river lowlands of Patagonia in Argentina. Unenlagia also had much more bird-like anatomy than Velociraptor, particularly in its hip and wrist bones, placing it even closer on the evolutionary tree to the ancestor of modern birds.

Question 5

Could Unenlagia fly?

Accepted Answer

No, Unenlagia could not fly. It was too large and its body plan was not suited for powered flight. However, its arm bones and wrist joints were arranged almost exactly like those of a flying bird, and some scientists think it could flap its arms to help it run up steep slopes or pin down prey, a behavior researchers call wing-assisted incline running. It was essentially carrying the equipment for flight without being able to use it for that purpose, which makes it a fascinating snapshot of evolution in action.

Question 6

Where did Unenlagia live?

Accepted Answer

Unenlagia lived in what is now the Neuquén Province of Patagonia in Argentina, in the southern part of South America. Around 85 million years ago this region was a warm, lush landscape of rivers, floodplains, and forests, very different from the dry scrubland that covers much of Patagonia today. The fossils were found in a rock unit called the Portezuelo Formation, which has produced many important dinosaur discoveries from the Late Cretaceous period.

Question 7

Did Unenlagia have feathers?

Accepted Answer

Almost certainly yes, though no feather impressions have been found directly with Unenlagia's fossils. Its close relative Buitreraptor, found in the same region of Argentina and belonging to the same unenlagiine group, shares a very similar body plan, and most small dromaeosaurids from this era are now understood to have been feathered. Scientists consider feather covering extremely likely for Unenlagia based on its evolutionary position and its close relationship to birds.

Question 8

Who discovered Unenlagia?

Accepted Answer

Unenlagia was discovered and described by Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas and his colleague Pablo Puerta in 1997. The fossil was found in Neuquén Province in Patagonia, a region that Novas has spent much of his career excavating and that has produced some of the most remarkable dinosaur discoveries in the world. A second species, Unenlagia paynemili, was described in 2004 by a separate team led by Jorge Calvo, named in honor of a local Mapuche community chief.

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