Spectrovenator
Name:
Spectrovenator
(Ghost Hunter).
Phonetic: Spek-tro-ven-ah-tor.
Named By: H. Zaher, D. Pol, B. A.
Navarro, D. Delcourt & A. B. Carvalho - 2020.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Saurischia,
Theropoda, Abelisauridae.
Species: S. ragei (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Holotype roughly estimated at about 2.5
meters long.
Known locations: Brazil - Quiricó Formation.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skull and
partial post cranial skeleton including hip and leg bones, ribs as
well as some cervical, dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae.
Spectrovenator
is a genus of abelisaurid
dinosaur that lived in South America during
the early Cretaceous period. Spectrovenator is
considered to be
intermediate between the most primitive abelisaurid dinosaurs of the
late Jurassic and the more advanced members of the abelisauridae of
the late Cretaceous. Analysis of the skull reveals that
Spectrovenator probably did not have the same
feeding strategy of later
abelisaurs.
The
holotype individual of Spectrovenator was recovered
from underneath the
same area as the holotype individual of the sauropod
dinosaur
Tapuiasaurus.
The hidden nature of these fossils and subsequent
surprise at their discovery was the inspiration for the name
Spectrovenator which means ‘ghost hunter’.
Further reading
- An Early Cretaceous theropod dinosaur from Brazil sheds light on
the cranial evolution of the Abelisauridae. - Comptes Rendus
Palevol. 19 (6): 101–115. - H. Zaher, D. Pol, B.
A. Navarro, D. Delcourt & A. B. Carvalho -
2020.
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