Ozraptor

Ozraptor by Mehdi Rasulle
Photography by Matt Sullivan

Kingsway Children’s Playground
Wanneroo, Perth, Western Australia

The Ozraptor was a therapod dinosaur that roamed the Australian continent during the Jurassic period ( 200 million to 145 million years ago). At this time Australia was still part of Gondwanaland.

Therapod dinosaurs of which the well known Tyrannosaurus Rex is one were mainly carnivores with three toes on each limb. This is a direct evolutionary link to present day birds. The brooding of eggs by the birds of today is believed to connect back to the therapod dinosaurs. They also share the “wishbone” bone structure in their skeleton.

It had a total height of 3 metres with a shoulder height of 1.5metres. Its tail was approximately 3.5 metres when fully grown.

The Ozraptor was a meat eater with a huge fierce mouth lined with razor sharp teeth.

It walked on its hind legs and its forelegs were used to catch and kill its prey.

 

Sculpture Description:

A  life-size Ozraptor set in a children’s playground. Near the dinosaur there is a fossil of an Ozraptor skeleton buried in sand. Children are able to become palaeontologists by digging in the sand and un-earthing the fossil.

The dinosaur and skeleton  are fabricated from stainless steel and concrete and coloured with oxides.