Outline: a typical theropod
Lajasvenator
"Las Lajas hunter"
- Lived
- 137 to 133 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Carcharodontosauridae
- Found in
- Argentina
- Named by
- Coria et al. 2020
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
135 million years ago
Field notes
About Lajasvenator
What it was like
Lajasvenator was a carcharodontosaurid, a member of the family of "shark-toothed" predators that later included Giganotosaurus. It was small for its family and is known from parts of the skull, backbone and hips.
Its world
It lived about 137 to 133 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. Its bones come from the Mulichinco Formation, where it lived alongside the plant eater Emiliasaura and the sauropod Pilmatueia.
How it was found
Coria and colleagues named it in 2020. It is one of the oldest carcharodontosaurids known from South America.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Carcharodontosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: R. A. Coria, P. J. Currie, and F. Ortega, M. A. Baiano. 2020. An Early Cretaceous, medium-sized carcharodontosaurid theropod (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Mulichinco Formation (upper Valanginian), Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina. Cretaceous Research 111