Neovenator
| Neovenator Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous, 125 mya
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| Genus: | Neovenator
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Neovenator is a dinosaur related to the clade which contains Allosaurus as its key member. Since the discovery of Neovenator on the Isle of Wight, UK, it has become one of the best-known large carnivorous dinosaurs in Europe.
Neovenator was about 7.5 meters (24.5 feet) in length, and was of a slim build, weighting 1000–2000 kg.[1] Some fossils suggest a length of about 10 meters (33 feet), but these fossils are very fragmentary.[2] It lived during the early Cretaceous), about 125 million years ago.
Fossil remains of Neovenator have been found on the Isle of Wight (southern England), and were first discovered in the 20th century. Neovenator existed alongside Baryonyx, Polacanthus and Iguanadon in the early Cretaceous. It was one of the top predators of its day.
The holotype of Neovenator salerii had many pathologies. They were "midcaudal vertebrae fusions, healed fractures of mid-caudal vertebra transverse processes; osteophytes affecting pedal phalanges, healed gastralia rib fractures, some forming false joints... [and] scapula fracture".[3] This means the individual survived and healed after a number of bone fractures.
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References
[change | change source]- ↑ Paleofilescom. [1] Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Dodoson P, Weishampel D.B & Osmólska H. 2004. The Dinosauria. 2nd ed, University of North Carolina Press, p. 104.
- ↑ Molnar R.E. 2001. Theropod paleopathology: a literature survey: In: Mesozoic vertebrate life, edited by Tanke D.H. & Carpenter K. Indiana University Press, p. 337–363.