Dino card No. 1556 of 2,027

Riojavenatrix

Say it: ree-oh-hah-ven-AY-trix

Name means: “hunter from La Rioja”5

Ate: MeatSpinosaursEarly Cretaceous

Riojavenatrix was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Spain. It was a spinosaur, a type of dinosaur with a crocodile-like snout that probably ate fish. This dinosaur was one of the last spinosaurs to live in Europe.5 1

Lived

121 to 120 million years ago5

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Igea, La Rioja, Spain5 1

Food

Meat5

Length

7 to 8 m2 3

subadult specimen

Weight

1.5 tonnes3

estimated body mass

Height

3 m2

adult estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

adult estimate

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1 cars

as long as 8 dogs nose to tailas long as 44 bananas end to endas heavy as 50 big dogsas heavy as 300 watermelonsas tall as 1.5 doors stacked up

How big was Riojavenatrix compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Riojavenatrix was named in 2024, making it a very recently discovered dinosaur.5

It lived about 121 to 119 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.5

Riojavenatrix is known from bones of the spine, hips, and hind legs.1

Its thigh bone had a special shape that was halfway between older theropods and later spinosaurs.1

This dinosaur is one of the youngest baryonychines, a group of spinosaurs, ever found.1

Riojavenatrix lived in a lake environment, and its species name 'lacustris' means 'of the lake'.1

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

?How big was Riojavenatrix?

A subadult was about 7 to 8 metres long. An adult probably reached about 9 metres long and 3 metres tall.2

?What did Riojavenatrix eat?

It was a meat-eater, and like other spinosaurs it probably ate fish.2

?When did Riojavenatrix live?

It lived about 120 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.2

?Where was Riojavenatrix found?

Its fossils were found in La Rioja, Spain, at the Virgen del Villar-1 site.4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Riojavenatrix
Named by: Isasmendi et al. 20245
Group: Spinosaurs
Family / clade: Spinosauridae5
Classification: Theropoda > Spinosauridae5
Age of the rocks: 121 to 120 million years (Aptian)5
Countries: Spain5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Riojavenatrix was named by a team of scientists led by E. Isasmendi in 2024. The fossils were found in the Enciso Group of the Cameros Basin in La Rioja, Spain.5 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Riojavenatrix is related to other spinosaurs, because it has a mix of features from different groups.1

Where the facts come from

Increasing the theropod record of Europe: a new basal spinosaurid from the Enciso Group of the Cameros Basin (La Rioja, Spain). Evolutionary implications and palaeobiodiversity (riunet.upv.es)
Riojavenatrix lacustris (es.wikipedia.org)
Researchers discover a new species of carnivorous dinosaur in La Rioja, Spain (phys.org)
Riojavenatrix (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
Riojavenatrix 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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