Fosterovenator
Name:
Fosterovenator
(Foster’s hunter).
Phonetic: Fos-teh-ro-ven-ah-tor.
Named By: S. G. Dalman - 2014.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Saurischia,
Theropoda, Ceratosauridae.
Species: F. churei (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Paratype fibula 27.5 centimetres long.
Scaled and reconstructed to Elaphrosaurus proportions results in a
rough estimate of up to about 2.5 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Morrison
Formation (Brushy Basin Member).
Time period: Kimmeridgian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Tibia, astralgus and fibula
from two individuals.
Fosterovenator
was a ceratosaurid
theropod dinosaur that lived in North America during
the late Cretaceous. At the time of writing the only parts that are
known for Fosterovenator are lower leg bones, but
in the original
description of this genus, the fossils were noted as being
superficially similar to those of the genus Elaphrosaurus,
a very
gracile theropod dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic of Africa,
though several fossils from the North American Morrison Formation have
been speculated as belonging to Elaphrosaurus or Elaphrosaurus-like
dinosaurs before the description of Fosterovenator.
If
indeed built in a similar way to Elaphrosaurus,
then Fosterovenator
would have been a predator that focused upon speed and agility to hunt
smaller, possibly juvenile dinosaurs. However this speed would have
also been the best defence for Fosterovenator as
the genus lived in the
same area and at the same time as much larger and more powerful
predatory dinosaurs such as Torvosaurus,
Allosaurus
and possibly even
Ceratosaurus.
Further reading
- New data on small theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic
Morrison Formation of Como Bluff, Wyoming, USA. - Volumina
Jurassica 12(2):181-196. - S. G. Dalman - 2014.
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