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Description

Gigantoraptor is a specimen impossible to imagine, something does not ring a bell when comparing it to the other “regular” streamline, thin oviraptor reconstructions. Possibly because we do not have a contemporary comparative of a land-based predator or omnivore (we cannot discard a herbivore either). Gigantoraptor could be an agile giant, an unlikely image coming with this >7m size; or a rather slow “elephantine” creature more like beer-bellied Deinocheirus (to support such size sturdier bones and maybe a quadruped structure would have been required, and Gigantoraptor has none of these, you can argue with the long forelimbs, but these are too thin for support of the body frame.)
Reconstruction above: I’ve created Oviraptoid that reflects my visual, with touched of Silkie Plumage - a sturdy, heavy posture of a large animal with the oviraptor proportions. I can imagine this creature weighting almost a tone. This is not a Gigantoraptor mind me, but lovely Citipati (skeletal = ref. With handful of personal touches), Gigantoraptor was 35x more massive.
*Sorry for any anatomical inaccuracies in advance, this is a purely speculative reconstruction.
References:
Hill, R. V., D’Emic, M. D., Bever, G. S. & Norell, M. A. in press. A complex hyobranchial apparatus in a Cretaceous dinosaur and the antiquity of avian paraglossalia. Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society

Description

Gigantoraptor is a specimen impossible to imagine, something does not ring a bell when comparing it to the other “regular” streamline, thin oviraptor reconstructions. Possibly because we do not have a contemporary comparative of a land-based predator or omnivore (we cannot discard a herbivore either). Gigantoraptor could be an agile giant, an unlikely image coming with this >7m size; or a rather slow “elephantine” creature more like beer-bellied Deinocheirus (to support such size sturdier bones and maybe a quadruped structure would have been required, and Gigantoraptor has none of these, you can argue with the long forelimbs, but these are too thin for support of the body frame.)
Reconstruction above: I’ve created Oviraptoid that reflects my visual, with touched of Silkie Plumage - a sturdy, heavy posture of a large animal with the oviraptor proportions. I can imagine this creature weighting almost a tone. This is not a Gigantoraptor mind me, but lovely Citipati (skeletal = ref. With handful of personal touches), Gigantoraptor was 35x more massive.
*Sorry for any anatomical inaccuracies in advance, this is a purely speculative reconstruction.
References:
Hill, R. V., D’Emic, M. D., Bever, G. S. & Norell, M. A. in press. A complex hyobranchial apparatus in a Cretaceous dinosaur and the antiquity of avian paraglossalia. Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society