Viavenator
Viavenator Temporal range: Santonian
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Life restoration of Viavenator exxoni | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Family: | †Abelisauridae |
Clade: | †Furileusauria |
Genus: | †Viavenator Filippi et al. 2016 |
Type species | |
†Viavenator exxoni Filippi et al. 2016
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Viavenator (meaning "road hunter") is a genus of carnivorous abelisaurid theropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina's Bajo de la Carpa Formation. It coexisted with the megaraptoran Tratayenia rosalesi.
Classification[]
Filippi classified Viavenator to a new clade known as the Furileusauria,[1] which includes Viavenator as well as Carnotaurus. This would have meant Viavenator was closer to Carnotaurus than Majungasaurus. It would have been 5.6 metres (18 ft) in length.[2]
Palaeobiology[]
Viavenator possessed a similar brain morphology to Aucasaurus, another South American abelisaurid and had a similar inner ear. Compared to the Madagascan abelisaurid Majungasaurus, Viavenator was more reliant more on quick movements of the head and sophisticated gaze stabilization mechanisms; however, both genera had a similar range of hearing according to the examinations and subsequent CT scans of the cranium.[3]
See also[]
- Timeline of ceratosaur research
- 2016 in paleontology
References[]
- ^ Leonardo S. Filippi; Ariel H. Méndez; Rubén D. Juárez Valieri & Alberto C. Garrido (2016). "A new brachyrostran with hypertrophied axial structures reveals an unexpected radiation of latest Cretaceous abelisaurids". Cretaceous Research. 61: 209–219. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.12.018.
- ^ Grillo, O. N.; Delcourt, R. (2016). "Allometry and body length of abelisauroid theropods: Pycnonemosaurus nevesi is the new king". Cretaceous Research. 69: 71–89. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.09.001.
- ^ "Neuroanatomy of the abelisaurid theropod Viavenator exxoni". 23 June 2017.
- Brachyrostrans
- Santonian life
- Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America
- Cretaceous Argentina
- Fossils of Argentina
- Bajo de la Carpa Formation
- Fossil taxa described in 2016
- Theropod stubs