Australovenator
| Australovenator Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
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Scientific classification 
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| 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
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| Binomial name | |
| Australovenator wintonensis Hocknull et al. 2009
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Australovenator is a medium-sized theropod dinosaur that lived in Australia about 100 million years ago.
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
[change | change source]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]
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| Megaraptora |
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References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hocknull, Scott A.; et al. (2009). "New mid-Cretaceous (latest Albian) dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia". PLOS ONE. 4 (7): e6190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006190. PMC 2703565. PMID 19584929.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | New dinosaurs found in Australia". news.bbc.co.uk. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
- ↑ "Three new dinosaurs found in western Queensland". brisbanetimes.com.au. 3 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-05.
- ↑ Benson R.B.J.; et al. (2010). "A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic". Naturwissenschaften. 97 (1): 71–78. Bibcode:2010NW.....97...71B. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0614-x. PMID 19826771. S2CID 22646156.