Redondavenator
Name:
Redondavenator
(Redonda hunter).
Phonetic: Re-don-dah-ven-ah-tor.
Named By: S. J. Nesbitt, R. B. Irmis,
S. G. Lucas & A. P. Hunt - 2005.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Crocodylomorpha, Sphenosuchidae.
Species: R. quayensis
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull at least 60 centimetres long.
Total length about 3.8-4 meters long.
Known locations: USA, New Mexico - Redonda
Formation.
Time period: Norian/Rhaetian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and partial
post cranial skeletal fossils.
Redondavenator
is a genus of sphenosuchid crocodylomorph that lived in the USA during
the later stages of the Triassic. Only the anterior (forward)
portion of the skull is known, though estimates of the complete
skull result in a reconstructed length of at least sixty centimetres,
and when combined with the post cranial remains, result in a total
estimated length of just under four meters. Redondavenator
would have
been a predator of other relatively large animals, with speculation
that the genus may have evolved to fill an ecological niche left vacant
by rauisuchians,
and not yet filled by dinosaurs.
Care
should be taken not to confuse Redondavenator with
Redondasaurus,
a
large phytosaur
that is also named after the Redonda Formation like
Redondavenator also is.
Further reading
- A giant crocodylomorph from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico. -
Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 79:471-478. - S. J. Nesbitt,
R. B. Irmis, S. G. Lucas & A. P. Hunt -
2005.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |