Erythrovenator
Erythrovenator was a small, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Late Triassic. It is one of the oldest theropod dinosaurs ever found, and it hunted in a land full of strange reptiles and early mammals.14
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Fun facts
Erythrovenator is known from just one fossil: the top part of a left thigh bone. This bone was colored red by the mudstone it was buried in, which is how the dinosaur got its name 'red hunter'.1
Scientists think Erythrovenator was one of the very first theropod dinosaurs, living around 233 to 225 million years ago.14
The only known Erythrovenator fossil was found at the Niemeyer Site in Brazil, a place where many fossils of a different animal, the cynodont Siriusgnathus, have been found.1
Erythrovenator's thigh bone has a special shape that helps scientists tell it apart from other early dinosaurs. The front part of the bone is shaped like a pyramid.1
When Erythrovenator was alive, South America was part of the supercontinent Pangaea, and the climate was much different than it is today.1
Most asked questions about Erythrovenator
?How big was Erythrovenator?
It was about 2 metres long and weighed around 9 kilograms. That is roughly the size of a large dog.3
?What did Erythrovenator eat?
Scientists think it ate meat, because all the earliest theropod dinosaurs were carnivores. It may have hunted small reptiles and early mammal relatives called cynodonts.3
?When did Erythrovenator live?
It lived during the Late Triassic Period, about 233 to 225 million years ago.1
?Is Erythrovenator a dinosaur?
Yes, it is a dinosaur. It belongs to the group Theropoda, which includes T. rex and Velociraptor.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Erythrovenator
- Named by
- Müller 20204
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Theropoda4
- Classification
- Theropoda4
- Age of the rocks
- 237 to 227 million years (Carnian)4
- Rock formations
- Candelária4
- Countries
- Brazil4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Erythrovenator was named by paleontologist Rodrigo Temp Müller in 2020. The fossil was found in red mudstone at the Niemeyer Site near Agudo in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.14
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure if Erythrovenator lived during the late Carnian or early Norian age, because the exact age of the rocks where it was found is still debated.1
Where the facts come from
- Erythrovenator (en.wikipedia.org)
- New Meat-Eating Dinosaur Species Found in Brazil | Paleontology | Sci-News.com (sci.news)
- Pesquisadores da UFSM descobrem no RS fóssil de um dos mais antigos antepassados do T-rex – UFSM (ufsm.br)
- Erythrovenator in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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