Australovenator wintonensis

Australovenator is a genus of megaraptoran theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Australia. The holotype (name-bearing) specimen consists of a partial skeleton that was discovered in rocks of the Winton Formation in near Elderslie Station in 2006. Its remains, including elements of the forelimbs, hindlimbs, pelvis, and lower jaws, were found intermingled with those of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus. These rock layers derive from the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous period, about 95 million years ago. Australovenator was described by Australian paleontologist Scott Hocknull and colleagues in 2009. The genus contains a single species, A. wintonensis, though fragmentary remains from the Eumeralla and Wonthaggi Formations may belong to Australovenator as well.

Australovenator wintonensis

Talisen · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AustralovenatorPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 89.8 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 2 of 4 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 4 occurrencesLate Cretaceous126–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–124 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences124–123 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences123–122 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences112–110 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences99–98 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences98–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences95–94 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences94–93 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.4 Mya100.5 Mya126.5 Mya89.1 Mya

4 occurrences of Australovenator wintonensis on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Winton — 22.20°S, 142.53°EWinton — 22.35°S, 143.09°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.66°S, 145.68°EEumeralla — 38.85°S, 143.55°E

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The named rock units Australovenator wintonensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Australovenator wintonensis and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Australovenator wintonensis and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

40 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Australovenator wintonensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Australovenator wintonensis

Credit
Talisen
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Australovenator wintonensis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAustralovenator through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hocknull et al. 2009