''Viavenator'' (meaning "road hunter") is a genus of carnivorous

abelisaurid Abelisauridae (meaning "Abel's lizards") is a family (or clade) of ceratosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Abelisaurids thrived during the Cretaceous period, on the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana, and today their fossil remains are found ...

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

discovered in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Bajo de la Carpa Formation The Bajo de la Carpa Formation is a geologic formation of the Neuquén Basin that crops out in northern Patagonia, in the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, Argentina. It is the oldest of two formations belonging to the Río Colorado Subgroup ...

. It coexisted with the

megaraptora Megaraptora is a clade of carnivorous Tetanurae, tetanuran theropod dinosaurs with controversial relations to other theropods. Its Derived (phylogenetics), derived members, the Megaraptoridae are noted for their elongated hand claws and proporti ...

n '' Tratayenia rosalesi''.

Classification

Filippi classified ''Viavenator'' to a new clade known as the Furileusauria, which includes ''Viavenator'' as well as ''

Carnotaurus ''Carnotaurus'' (; ) is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, probably sometime between 71 and 69 million years ago. The only species is ''Carnotaurus sastrei''. Known from a single well-p ...

''. This would have meant ''Viavenator'' was closer to ''

'' than ''

Majungasaurus ''Majungasaurus'' (; ) is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period, making it one of the last known non-avian dinosaurs that went ex ...

''. It would have been in length.

Palaeobiology

''Viavenator'' possessed a similar brain morphology to ''

Aucasaurus ''Aucasaurus'' is a genus of medium-sized abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from Argentina that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Santonian to Campanian stage) of the Anacleto Formation. It was smaller than the related ''Carnotaurus'', although more ...

'', another South American abelisaurid and had a similar inner ear. Compared to the Madagascan abelisaurid ''

'', ''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.

References

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-stub

Classification

Palaeobiology

See also

References