Outline: a typical theropod
Riojavenatrix
"La Rioja huntress"
Type species Riojavenatrix lacustris
- Lived
- 121 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Spinosauridae
- Found in
- Spain
- Named by
- Isasmendi et al. 2024
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
120 million years ago
Field notes
About Riojavenatrix
What it was like
Riojavenatrix was a spinosaur, a two-legged predator with a long, narrow snout, probably suited to catching fish. It is known from parts of the hips and legs.
Its world
It lived about 121 to 120 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Spain. The rocks where it was found formed near lakes and rivers.
How it was found
Isasmendi and colleagues named it in 2024 from one find. The type species is Riojavenatrix lacustris. It is one of several spinosaurs known from Spain and Portugal.
Close relatives
Other members of Spinosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: E. Isasmendi, E. Cuesta, and I. Díaz-Martínez, J. Company, P. Sáez-Benito, L. I. Viera, A. Torices, X. Pereda-Suberbiola. 2024. Increasing the theropod record of Europe: a new basal spinosaurid from the Enciso Group of the Cameros Basin (La Rioja, Spain). Evolutionary implications and palaeobiodiversity. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202(3):1–34