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Description
One of the more unusual members of the Late Oligocene Fray Bentos Fauna of Uruguay was the piscivorous Paravian Suchoraptor. Known from a single partial specimen consisting of a fragmentary upper jaw, cervical vertebrae, ribs and hindlimb elements, the animal in life would have measured an estimated 7m long. Thankfully, more complete fossil material attributable to the genus has been described from Early Miocene deposits of Brazil, giving palaeontologists a decent picture of this Theropod's biology and ecology. The snout was elongated and narrow, housing small conical teeth adapted for snagging slippery fish, while the hindlimbs were slender. The forelimbs were relatively short but strong and heavily muscled, probably utilized in grappling with struggling prey. It is theorized that Suchoraptor was a rather uncommon animal, inhabiting marshland and riverside ecosystems that were abundant in the floodplains of Cenozoic South America. The genus was a member of the derived Unenlagiian clade Hydrotheroraptorini, a lineage of large and superficially Spinosaur-like animals that were native to both South America and Africa; an interesting fact that indicates a Late Cretaceous origin for this group. Phylogenetic studies have posited a divergence point of roughly 70 mya, although fossil material attributable to Hydrotheroraptorini first appears during the Late Paleocene. Indeed, this group has a sparse fossil record even during the Cenozoic, with only 5 genera having been described and named from South America. Suchoraptor is the only genus known from multiple specimens, therefore being the best understood. Leading a wading lifestyle similar to that of a giant heron, this genus preyed upon the multiple species of lungfish and gar that inhabited South America's river systems.

Credit for the artwork goes to Sheather888.

Description
One of the more unusual members of the Late Oligocene Fray Bentos Fauna of Uruguay was the piscivorous Paravian Suchoraptor. Known from a single partial specimen consisting of a fragmentary upper jaw, cervical vertebrae, ribs and hindlimb elements, the animal in life would have measured an estimated 7m long. Thankfully, more complete fossil material attributable to the genus has been described from Early Miocene deposits of Brazil, giving palaeontologists a decent picture of this Theropod's biology and ecology. The snout was elongated and narrow, housing small conical teeth adapted for snagging slippery fish, while the hindlimbs were slender. The forelimbs were relatively short but strong and heavily muscled, probably utilized in grappling with struggling prey. It is theorized that Suchoraptor was a rather uncommon animal, inhabiting marshland and riverside ecosystems that were abundant in the floodplains of Cenozoic South America. The genus was a member of the derived Unenlagiian clade Hydrotheroraptorini, a lineage of large and superficially Spinosaur-like animals that were native to both South America and Africa; an interesting fact that indicates a Late Cretaceous origin for this group. Phylogenetic studies have posited a divergence point of roughly 70 mya, although fossil material attributable to Hydrotheroraptorini first appears during the Late Paleocene. Indeed, this group has a sparse fossil record even during the Cenozoic, with only 5 genera having been described and named from South America. Suchoraptor is the only genus known from multiple specimens, therefore being the best understood. Leading a wading lifestyle similar to that of a giant heron, this genus preyed upon the multiple species of lungfish and gar that inhabited South America's river systems.

Credit for the artwork goes to Sheather888.