Australovenator

Australovenator is a medium-sized theropod dinosaur that lived in Australia about 100 million years ago.

Australovenator Temporal range: Late Cretaceous ~95 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	†Megaraptora
Family:	†Megaraptoridae
Genus:	†Australovenator Hocknull et al. 2009
Species:	†A. wintonensis
Binomial name
Australovenator wintonensis Hocknull et al. 2009

The fossil bones of the dinosaur were found at an ancient billabong near Winton, Queensland. Scientists have called it Banjo, after the famous Australian poet, Banjo Patterson.^[1] Patterson wrote the song "Waltzing Matilda" after a visit to Winton in 1885.^[1]

The dinosaur was discovered in 2006, with several others, such as the Middle Cretaceous Diamantinasaurus and the Early Cretaceous Wintonotitan.^[2] It was the most complete theropod skeleton to be found in Australia, as of 2009.^[1]

Description

Australovenator was a medium-sized, fast, carnivorous dinosaur with three large, sharp claws on each hand. It stood about two meters tall.^[3] Dinosaur expert Scott Hocknull described Australovenator as being like a cheetah.^[2] The Australovenator was indeed the lion of the Cretaceous.

A phylogenetic analysis found Australovenator to be an allosaurid carnosaur.^[1] More studies showed it formed a clade with several other carcharodontosaurid-like allosaurs, the Neovenatoridae.^[4]