Pandoravenator

Say it: pan-DOR-uh-ven-ay-tor

Name means: “Pandora hunter, named after the fossil site called Caja de Pandora, which means Pandora's box”1

Ate: MeatOther meat-eatersLate Jurassic

Pandoravenator was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina, about 160 to 150 million years ago. It was one of the first big predatory dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic in that part of the world.1 2

Lived

158 to 149 million years ago3

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Fossils were found in the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation in Chubut Province, central Patagonia, Argentina.1 2

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Pandoravenator is the first theropod dinosaur ever found in the Late Jurassic rocks of the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation in Argentina.1

Its ankle bones were special: the astragalus had two small bumps and a low, sideways-leaning process. This shape is halfway between older theropods and more advanced ones.2

Scientists think the way its ankle bones grew is similar to how living birds develop their ankle bones, which helps us understand bird evolution.1

The fossils include parts of the backbone and legs, but the skull has not been found yet.2

Pandoravenator lived alongside sauropods, ancient crocodiles, and ancient fishes in the same formation.1

AI-made picture of Pandoravenator — An AI-made picture of how Pandoravenator 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 Pandoravenator

?How big was Pandoravenator?

Nobody knows for sure because only a partial skeleton has been found, including parts of the backbone and legs but no skull. It was a medium-sized theropod, but exact size estimates are not available from the sources.1 2

?What did Pandoravenator eat?

Pandoravenator was a meat-eating dinosaur, so it ate other animals. It lived alongside sauropods, ancient crocodiles, and fishes, which it may have hunted.1

?When did Pandoravenator live?

Pandoravenator lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 160 to 150 million years ago.1

?Where was Pandoravenator found?

Its fossils were found in central Patagonia, in Chubut Province, Argentina, in the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Pandoravenator
Named by: Rauhut and Pol 20173
Group: Other meat-eaters
Family / clade: Tetanurae3
Classification: Theropoda3
Age of the rocks: 158 to 149 million years ()3
Rock formations: Cañadón Calcáreo3
Countries: Argentina3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Pandoravenator was discovered and named in 2017 by paleontologists Oliver Rauhut and Diego Pol. They described it from a partial skeleton found at the Caja de Pandora site in Argentina.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Pandoravenator fits among the early meat-eating dinosaurs, because the fossils are incomplete and different analyses give different results.2

Where the facts come from

Pandoravenator (en.wikipedia.org)
A THEROPOD DINOSAUR FROM THE LATE JURASSIC CAÑADÓN CALCÁREO FORMATION OF CENTRAL PATAGONIA, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE THEROPOD TARSUS | Ameghiniana (ameghiniana.org.ar)
Pandoravenator in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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