Megaraptoridae is a family of large-bodied theropods best known for the enormous, sharply curved claws on the first and second fingers of each hand, with the largest claws exceeding 30 centimeters along the curve. Megaraptorids lived from the Early to Late Cretaceous, roughly 121 to 70 million years ago, and combined an elongated, lightly built skull with short but powerful, heavily clawed arms, a combination unusual among large predatory dinosaurs and still debated in terms of hunting strategy. Body length in the largest species reached 8 to 10 meters, and a highly pneumatic (air-filled) skeleton extending well into the tail suggests an efficient, lightweight build relative to their size.
The family is concentrated in Cretaceous South America, particularly Patagonia in Argentina, where the type genus Megaraptor and relatives such as Murusraptor and Tratayenia have been recovered, with additional material known from Australia (Australovenator) and possibly Asia. This distribution has been used as evidence for lingering biological connections between fragments of the former supercontinent Gondwana well into the Cretaceous. Because megaraptorid anatomy combines features seen in several different theropod lineages, the family's exact position on the theropod family tree remains an active area of paleontological research.