Lucianovenator

Lucianovenator
Skeleton of L. bonoi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Theropoda
Superfamily:	Coelophysoidea
Genus:	Lucianovenator Martines & Apaldetti, 2017
Binomial name
Lucianovenator bonoi Martines & Apaldetti, 2017

Lucianovenator is an extinct genus of coelophysoid dinosaur from the Norian Quebrada del Barro Formation, of Argentina. The type species, L. bonoi, was named in 2017. Lucianovenator is the first of his kind on South America, with the members of the family coelophysioidea limited to North America, Africa Europe & Asia. The estimated size of the specimen is about 2,8-3m. It would be a bipedal predator that hunts smaller animals.

Reconstruction

Discovery and naming

The genus was discovered and named during 2017, by paleontologists Ricardo Nestor Martínes and Cecilia Apaldetti. It was originally named "Lucianosaurus", as a synonym of Lucianosaurus wildi. A phylogenetic analysis recovers Lucianovenator bonoi nested into the group Coelophysidae in an unresolved clade together with Coelophysis rhodesiensis and Camposaurus arizonensis. The presence of Lucianovenator in the late Norian-Rhaetian of Argentina increases the poor and scarce record of Triassic South American neotheropods, suggesting that the virtual absence of theropods in the fossil record during the Rhaetian is probably a taphonomic/stratigraphic bias instead of a decline in diversity and abundance after the Norian. Finally, the new find corroborates the American endemism in the Late Triassic and worldwide distribution during the Early Jurassic of coelophysid neotheropods, supporting the extreme faunal homogeneity hypothesized for Early Jurassic continental biotas.

Gallery