Outline: a typical theropod
Dracovenator
"dragon hunter"
- Lived
- 201 to 193 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- South Africa
- Named by
- Yates 2005
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
195 million years ago
Field notes
About Dracovenator
What it was like
Dracovenator was a two-legged meat eater, probably a relative of Dilophosaurus. It is known only from parts of the skull and jaws, so its size and shape are estimates, but it was one of the larger hunters of its time and place.
Its world
It lived about 201 to 193 million years ago, in the Early Jurassic, in what is now South Africa. Its bones come from the Elliot Formation, where it may have hunted the long-necked Massospondylus and Aardonyx or smaller animals like Heterodontosaurus and Lesothosaurus.
How it was found
Yates named Dracovenator in 2005. Only one find is known.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Neotheropoda
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. M. Yates. 2005. A new theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa and its implications for the early evolution of theropods. Palaeontologia Africana 41:105-122