Gigantonychus

Gigantonychus
Gigantonychus
Meaning: Giant Claw
Description: Large, sickle clawed raptor
Species: G. indianus
Family: Deinonychosauria, Velociraptorinae
Length: 16-18 feet
Lifestyle: Hunter
Range: Eurasia

Distinguishing features: One of the more enigmatic raptors, the Gigantonychus is a powerful predator that hunts in pairs. Though not a large member of is group, it is quite burly, weighing about 600 pounds. The beast is tan with black stripes and a ruff of feathers that are red in color. Its eyes are yellow. Males are a few feet shorter than females but have longer ruffs. Their vicious toe claws are more than 17 inches long and have a bladelike edge. The same goes for the claws on their opposable fingers. Adults gather in leks during the breeding season in December. Territorial boundaries dissolve as the animals leave to find suitable mates. They display by raising their feathers and strutting before the females and fight other males by locking claws and pushing until the other is knocked to the ground. The sound is like oversize castanets being hit against each other. There is no bloodletting in such battles. The females choose males who are strong and agile. Eggs are laid in clutches of ten to eighteen in nests constructed in elaborate bowers in spring when there is more food and more variety in prey. The young leave when full grown at age eight.

Habits and Habitat: These animals are found only in tropical and sub-tropical regions where there is an abundance of prey year round. Their prey typically consists of ceratopsians, hadrosaurs, ornithomimids, oviraptors, hypsilophodonts and therizinosaurs. They will also raid nests for eggs and take hatchling and juvenile sauropods. They are not fast and tend to stalk and ambush prey before taking prey from different sides and slashing it to exhaustion with their hand and foot claws. They are very tolerant of the smaller Corvoraptors, using them as partners in hunting. The raptors will take turns when feeding on a kill. Their main enemies are tyrannosaurs, abelisaurs and Tyrannoraptors.


This creature was the first Dromaeosaur i created for Dinosaurs of the Present. Its a relatively big raptor, and formidable because it behaves like a leopard in the way it silently stalks its prey before slashing the throat. I haven't drawn it often enough in my opinion, because frankly, Tyrannoraptor took the spotlight as the titan of the group. But it still holds a special place in my heart.