Gnathovorax
Name:
Gnathovorax
(jaw voracious).
Phonetic: Nayf-o-vor-ax.
Named By: C. Pacheco, R. T. Muller, M.
Langer, F. A. Pretto, L. Kerber & S. Dias Silva
- 2019.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilai, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Herrerasauridae.
Species: G. cabreirai
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Skull roughly about 25 centimetres long.
Possibly up to 2.5 meters long for holotype individual.
Known locations: Brazil - Santa Maria Formation.
Time period: Carnian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Skull and partial post
cranial skeleton.
Gnathovorax
was a very exciting find, not just because it was another early
predatory dinosaur, but because of the high level of preservation in
the holotype individual. Gnathovorax was an
herrerasaurid dinosaur,
and like other genera of its kind (such as Herrerasaurus
and
Sanjuansaurus),
would have been a bipedal predator, and a
precursor of the main land predator type throughout the remainder of
the Mesozoic. However, because so much more of Gnathovorax
has
been preserved, and in such a good way, we can more easily
reconstruct this dinosaur, and gain probable insights into relative
genera of dinosaurs which were otherwise lacking in them due to lack of
overall preservation.
The
holotype specimen of
Gnathovorax was discovered near to the fossil
remains of cynodonts
and
rhynchosaurs,
and it is tempting to think that early dinosaurs like
Gnathovorax may have hunted these other kinds of
creatures. However
the type specimen of Gnathovorax was found in a
mudstone deposit,
which leads to other ideas. One is that Gnathovorax
along with these
other creatures could have been caught up in a mudslide and buried
together. Another is that the cynodonts and rhynchosaurs got caught
up in a mudslide or predator trap of some kind, and when the
Gnathovorax came along to eat their bodies, it got
stuck and died
itself.
Further reading
- Gnathovorax cabreirai: a new early dinosaur
and the origin and
initial radiation of predatory dinosaurs. PeerJ 7(e7963). -
C. Pacheco, R. T. Muller, M. Langer, F. A. Pretto,
L. Kerber & S. Dias Silva - 2019.
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