| Athenar Temporal range: Late Jurassic, Tithonian | |
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| An artist illustration of Athenar bermani | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Diplodocoidea |
| Family: | †Dicraeosauridae |
| Genus: | †Athenar Whitlock et al., 2025 |
| Species: | †A. bermani |
| Binomial name | |
| †Athenar bermani Whitlock et al., 2025 | |
Athenar is an extinct genus of dicraeosaurid sauropod that lived during the Late Jurassic period in the Morrison Formation of the United States. The type and the only known species is A. bermani.
Description[]
Athenar is known from a fragmentary skeleton consists just a braincase and a partial skull roof that were originally assigned to Diplodocus. The skull roof and braincase were discovered in a taphonomic distortion, which resulted in the shift of dermal elements of skull roof unlike the braincase and due to the presence of sutures in the braincase, fossils are thought to have been from a subadult individual, despite the fossils themselves being large.
Discovery and Naming[]
The holotype of Athenar were discovered in 1913 from Carnegie Quarry of Morrison Formation beds by Douglass. The were classified as remains of Diplodocus in 1973.
However in 2025, Whitlock and his colleagues did research on the specimen and noting it differences from Diplodocus and other Diplodocids, they described it as a new genus and species of Dicraeosauridae, Athenar bermani, where the genus name is after Cleveland's metal artist Athenar and the species name is after David Berman who had contributed in the modern work and research on diplodocoid skulls.
Classification[]
Athenar is currently classified as a dicraeosaurid sauropod.