Viavenator

Viavenator (meaning "road hunter") is a genus of carnivorous abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in the Santonian-aged (Late Cretaceous) Bajo de la Carpa Formation of Argentina. Only a single species is known, V. exxoni, formally described in 2016 by Filippi and colleagues.

Viavenator Temporal range: Santonian ~86–83 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Life restoration of Viavenator exxoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Family:	†Abelisauridae
Clade:	†Furileusauria
Genus:	†Viavenator Filippi et al., 2016
Type species
†Viavenator exxoni Filippi et al., 2016

Classification

Filippi et al. classified Viavenator to a new clade known as the Furileusauria,^[1] which includes it as well as Carnotaurus. This would mean the former taxon was closer to the latter than Majungasaurus. It would have measured 5.6 metres (18 ft) in length.^[2]

Palaeobiology

Size comparison of Viavenator to a human

Viavenator possessed a brain morphology similar to Aucasaurus, another South American abelisaurid, and had a similar inner ear. Compared to the Madagascan abelisaurid Majungasaurus, Viavenator was more reliant on quick movements of the head and sophisticated gaze stabilization mechanisms. However, both genera had a similar range of hearing according to the examinations and subsequent CT scans of the cranium.^[3]

See also

• Timeline of ceratosaur research
• 2016 in paleontology