The first Dracoraptor fossils were discovered in 2014 near the Welsh town of Penarth.
In March 2014, brothers and amateur palaeontologists Nick and Rob Hanigan, while searching for ichthyosaur remains at Lavernock Point, a large cape south of Cardiff, found stone plates containing dinosaur fossils which had fallen off the 7-metre (23 ft) high cliff face.
Judith Adams and Philip Manning of the University of Manchester took X-ray pictures and CAT-scans of the fossils.
The remains were donated to the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, and prepared by Craig Chivers and Gary Blackwell.
In 2015, student Sam Davies found additional rock plates at the dig site, containing foot bones.

The type species, Dracoraptor hanigani, was named and described in 2016 by British palaeontologists David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells, and John Nudds.
The generic name combines the Latin draco, "dragon", a reference to the Welsh Dragon, with raptor, "robber".
The specific name honours Nick and Rob Hanigan as discoverers.

The holotype, NMW 2015.5G.1–2015.5G.11, was discovered in the lower Bull Cliff Member of the Blue Lias Formation in the United Kingdom.
More precisely, it came from a layer just metres below the first occurrence of Jurassic ammonite Psiloceras and above the Paper Shales that represent the lithological Triassic-Jurassic boundary, precisely dating the dinosaur to the earliest Hettangian stage, 201.3 million years ago ± 0.2 million years.

The holotype consists of a partial skeleton with skull.
It contains both praemaxilla (frontmost upper jaw bones), both maxillae (main upper jaw bone), teeth, a lacrimal, a jugal, a postorbital, a squamosal, a supraoccipital, parts of the lower jaws, a possible hyoid, two cervical (neck) vertebrae (backbones), cervical ribs, rear dorsal (back) vertebrae, at least five front caudal (tail) vertebrae, chevrons, ribs, gastralia (or "belly ribs"), the lower parts of a left forelimb, a furcula (wishbone), both pubic bones, a left ischium (lower and rearmost hip bone), a right femur, a tibia (shin bone), the upper part of a fibula (calf bone), a left astragalus (ankle bone), three tarsals, and three metatarsals.
About 40% of the skeleton is presented.
Dracoraptor is thus the most complete Mesozoic non-bird theropod dinosaur known from Wales.
The first Dracoraptor fossils were discovered in 2014 near the Welsh town of Penarth. In March 2014, brothers and amateur palaeontologists Nick and Rob Hanigan, while searching for ichthyosaur remains at Lavernock Point, a large cape south of Cardiff, found stone plates containing dinosaur fossils which had fallen off the 7-metre (23 ft) high cliff face. Judith Adams and Philip Manning of the University of Manchester took X-ray pictures and CAT-scans of the fossils. The remains were donated to the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, and prepared by Craig Chivers and Gary Blackwell. In 2015, student Sam Davies found additional rock plates at the dig site, containing foot bones.
The type species, Dracoraptor hanigani, was named and described in 2016 by British palaeontologists David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells, and John Nudds. The generic name combines the Latin draco, "dragon", a reference to the Welsh Dragon, with raptor, "robber". The specific name honours Nick and Rob Hanigan as discoverers.
The holotype, NMW 2015.5G.1–2015.5G.11, was discovered in the lower Bull Cliff Member of the Blue Lias Formation in the United Kingdom. More precisely, it came from a layer just metres below the first occurrence of Jurassic ammonite Psiloceras and above the Paper Shales that represent the lithological Triassic-Jurassic boundary, precisely dating the dinosaur to the earliest Hettangian stage, 201.3 million years ago ± 0.2 million years.
The holotype consists of a partial skeleton with skull. It contains both praemaxilla (frontmost upper jaw bones), both maxillae (main upper jaw bone), teeth, a lacrimal, a jugal, a postorbital, a squamosal, a supraoccipital, parts of the lower jaws, a possible hyoid, two cervical (neck) vertebrae (backbones), cervical ribs, rear dorsal (back) vertebrae, at least five front caudal (tail) vertebrae, chevrons, ribs, gastralia (or "belly ribs"), the lower parts of a left forelimb, a furcula (wishbone), both pubic bones, a left ischium (lower and rearmost hip bone), a right femur, a tibia (shin bone), the upper part of a fibula (calf bone), a left astragalus (ankle bone), three tarsals, and three metatarsals. About 40% of the skeleton is presented. Dracoraptor is thus the most complete Mesozoic non-bird theropod dinosaur known from Wales.
Dracoraptor