Microvenator
"small hunter"
Type species Microvenator celer
- Lived
- 121 to 94 million years ago, Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Caenagnathidae
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Ostrom 1970
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
110 million years ago
Habitat
The Cloverly Formation preserves a landscape with rivers and lakes in what is now Montana and Wyoming. Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus and Sauropelta lived there too.
Field notes
About Microvenator
What it was like
Microvenator was a small oviraptorosaur, a feathered theropod related to Caenagnathus. The only skeleton belongs to a young animal, so adults were larger. Adult oviraptorosaurs had toothless beaks and probably ate a mix of foods.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Montana. It comes from the Cloverly Formation, where it shared the land with Deinonychus, the plant eater Tenontosaurus and the armored Sauropelta.
How it was found
Ostrom named Microvenator in 1970. The type species is Microvenator celer.
Field gallery
More views of Microvenator
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Microvenator.
The evidence
The science behind Microvenator
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- An incomplete skeleton belongs to a small, immature theropod.
- Some back and tail vertebrae are wider than they are tall, and the pelvis has a distinctive deep depression.
Borrowed from relatives
- Its missing head is restored by comparison with beaked oviraptorosaurs such as Caenagnathus and Anzu.
- A feather covering is inferred from other oviraptorosaurs such as Caudipteryx, which preserves feathers.
Still unknown
- Its full adult size.
- The complete shape of its head.
- Its feather colors and patterns.
Discovery timeline
- 1970Named itOstrom
- 2014Family treeLamanna et al.
- 2016Its worldCarrano, Oreska & Lockwood
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Microvenator
Named it
Named Microvenator from a partial skeleton among the dinosaurs of the Cloverly Formation.
Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the Bighorn Basin area, Wyoming and Montana. Peabody Museum Bulletin 35: 1-234
No link available
Family tree
Named Anzu and recovered Microvenator and Gigantoraptor as early branches of the caenagnathid family.
A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America. PLoS ONE 9: e92022
Read the paper : A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North America (opens in a new tab)Its world
Studied the Cloverly animal community and found that rare animals such as Microvenator were easily missed in fossil samples.
Vertebrate paleontology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous), II: Paleoecology. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36: e1071265
Read the paper : Vertebrate paleontology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous), II: Paleoecology (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Caenagnathidae
Sources: Wikidata