Xenovenator
"strange hunter"
Type species Xenovenator espinosai
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- United States and Mexico
- Named by
- Rivera-Sylva et al. 2026
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
The Cerro del Pueblo Formation records a low coastal plain with rivers and lagoons. The wider regional dinosaur fauna included Parasaurolophus, Pentaceratops and Bistahieversor.
Field notes
About Xenovenator
What it was like
Xenovenator was a small, bird-like troodontid with a very odd head. The top of its skull was thick, swollen and rough, a little like the domes of pachycephalosaurs.
That thick skull roof may mean these animals pushed or butted each other, a kind of behavior never shown before in this group of feathered dinosaurs. For now that idea is a suggestion, not a certainty.
Its world
It lived about 84 to 72 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mexico and the United States. Its fossils come from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation in Mexico and the Kirtland Formation in New Mexico, where the horned Pentaceratops and the tyrannosaur Bistahieversor also lived.
How it was found
Rivera-Sylva and colleagues named Xenovenator in 2026 from pieces of the skull. Fossils from New Mexico that had been given another name were moved into the same genus.
Field gallery
More views of Xenovenator
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 Xenovenator.
The evidence
The science behind Xenovenator
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- The original braincase preserves a broad, thickened skull roof above the eyes.
- The bones across its forehead are fused and form a strongly rounded upper surface.
Borrowed from relatives
- Linhevenator supplies a model for the missing narrow snout, arms and specialized foot claws.
- Gobivenator supplies a model for the missing neck, trunk and tail.
- Feathers are inferred from feathered relatives such as Anchiornis.
Still unknown
- Whether its thick forehead was used in pushing or head-butting.
- Whether differences between the known skull roofs reflect age, sex or different species.
- Its feather colors and complete body proportions.
Often drawn wrong
- A towering pachycephalosaur-like dome exaggerates the thickened forehead of the original skull.
Discovery timeline
- 2011Close relativeXu et al.
- 2014Close relativeTsuihiji et al.
- 2026Named itRivera-Sylva et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Xenovenator
Close relative
Described Linhevenator, a troodontid with short arms and a specialized claw on the inner main toe.
A Short-Armed Troodontid Dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia and Its Implications for Troodontid Evolution. PLoS ONE 6: e22916
Read the paper : A Short-Armed Troodontid Dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia and Its Implications for Troodontid Evolution (opens in a new tab)Close relative
Described a nearly complete Gobivenator skeleton, a useful comparison for the missing body of Xenovenator.
An exquisitely preserved troodontid theropod with new information on the palatal structure from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Naturwissenschaften 101: 131-142
Read the paper : An exquisitely preserved troodontid theropod with new information on the palatal structure from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named Xenovenator from an unusually thick skull roof and proposed that it may have been used in contests between animals.
A Thick-Skulled Troodontid Theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. Diversity 18: 38
Read the paper : A Thick-Skulled Troodontid Theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: Wikidata