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Hypnovenator

Say it: hip-no-ven-AY-tor

Name means: “sleep hunter”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsEarly Cretaceous

Hypnovenator was a small, feathered dinosaur that could curl up and sleep like a bird. It lived in what is now Japan about 112 million years ago.1 3

Lived

113 to 106 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Tambasasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Hypnovenator is the oldest known troodontine dinosaur, a group of smart, bird-like raptors.1

Its fossils were found in a sleeping pose, with its legs tucked under its body and its head tucked under an arm.1

The name Hypnovenator means 'sleep hunter' because of its sleeping posture and its hunting lifestyle.1

It lived in a river environment, alongside other dinosaurs like the long-necked Tambatitanis and horned neoceratopsians.1

Hypnovenator had a special foot bone called an arctometatarsus, which helped it run fast.1

Its claws on the hands were shaped differently from earlier troodontids, showing how its hand use changed over time.1

AI-made picture of Hypnovenator — An AI-made picture of how Hypnovenator might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Hypnovenator

?How big was Hypnovenator?

Scientists do not know its exact size yet, but it was a small dinosaur, similar in size to other small troodontids.1 2

?Did Hypnovenator have feathers?

Yes, it was a feathered dinosaur, like other troodontids.2

?What did Hypnovenator eat?

It was a hunter, as its name 'sleep hunter' suggests, so it likely ate small animals.2

?Where was Hypnovenator found?

Its fossils were found in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, in rocks that were once a river environment.2 1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Hypnovenator
Named by: Kubota et al. 20243
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae3
Age of the rocks: 113 to 106 million years (Albian)3
Rock formations: Ohyamashimo3
Countries: Japan3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first Hypnovenator fossils were found in 2010 by Kaoru Matsubara and Takaharu Ohe during park construction in Japan. Scientists Kubota, Kobayashi, and Ikeda named it in 2024.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Hypnovenator was, because only a partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Early Cretaceous troodontine troodontid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Ohyamashimo Formation of Japan reveals the early evolution of Troodontinae | Scientific Reports (nature.com)
Hypnovenator (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Hypnovenator in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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