Outline: a typical theropod
Viavenator
"road hunter"
- Lived
- 86 to 84 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Abelisauridae
- Found in
- Argentina
- Named by
- Filippi et al. 2016
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Viavenator
What it was like
Viavenator was an abelisaur, a predator with a short skull and tiny arms. Its braincase is well preserved and shows details of its hearing and sense of balance.
Its world
It lived about 86 to 84 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. It comes from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, where it shared the land with the megaraptor Tratayenia, the alvarezsaur Alvarezsaurus and the titanosaurs Neuquensaurus and Bonitasaura.
How it was found
Filippi and colleagues named Viavenator in 2016. The name refers to a road near the dig site.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Abelisauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: L. S. Filippi, A. H. Méndez, and R. D. Juárez Valieri, A. C. Garrido. 2016. A new brachyrostran with hypertrophied axial structures reveals an unexpected radiation of latest Cretaceous abelisaurids. Cretaceous Research 60:209-219