Dino card No. 1557 of 2,027

Riparovenator

Say it: rip-ah-roh-ven-AY-tor

Name means: “riverbank hunter”1

Ate: MeatSpinosaursEarly Cretaceous

Riparovenator was a meat-eating dinosaur that lived near rivers on the Isle of Wight, England. It had a long, narrow snout and cone-shaped teeth, perfect for catching fish and other prey. This dinosaur is a spinosaur, a group known for their crocodile-like faces and love of water.1 2

Lived

126 to 121 million years ago5

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Isle of Wight, England, UK1 5

Food

Meat5 1

Length

9 m3

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 cars parked in a rowas long as 50 bananas end to end

How big was Riparovenator compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Riparovenator was named in 2021, making it a very recently discovered dinosaur.1 5

Its fossils were found at Chilton Chine on the Isle of Wight, along with another new spinosaur called Ceratosuchops.1

Riparovenator belongs to a group called Baryonychinae, which includes the African dinosaur Suchomimus.1 2

Scientists think spinosaurs like Riparovenator could hunt both on land and in water, eating fish and other animals.1 2

The name Riparovenator means 'riverbank hunter' in Latin, because it lived near rivers.1

Riparovenator lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 125 to 121 million years ago.5

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

?How big was Riparovenator?

Scientists are not sure of its exact size yet, because only partial skull and tail bones have been found. It was a large theropod dinosaur, but no total length or weight estimates have been published.1 4

?What did Riparovenator eat?

It ate fish, small turtles, young crocodiles, baby dinosaurs, and mammals. Like most spinosaurids, it hunted both in water and on land.4

?When did Riparovenator live?

It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. That is the Barremian age.4

?Where was Riparovenator found?

Its fossils were found at Chilton Chine on the Isle of Wight, England. They were uncovered between 2013 and 2017.1 4

?Is Riparovenator a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It is a baryonychine spinosaurid theropod dinosaur.4

?Did Riparovenator have feathers?

Nobody knows for sure. No feather fossils have been found with Riparovenator, and many large theropod dinosaurs are not known to have had feathers.1 4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Riparovenator
Named by: Barker et al. 20215
Group: Spinosaurs
Family / clade: Spinosauridae5
Classification: Theropoda > Spinosauridae5
Age of the rocks: 126 to 121 million years (Barremian)5
Rock formations: Wessex5
Countries: United Kingdom5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Riparovenator was named by scientists Barker, Hone, Naish and others in 2021. Its fossils were collected between 2013 and 2017 from the Wessex Formation on the Isle of Wight, England.1 5
Still debated: Scientists are still debating how much time spinosaurs like Riparovenator spent in water and how specialized they were for aquatic life.1 2

Where the facts come from

New spinosaurids from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, UK) and the European origins of Spinosauridae | Scientific Reports (nature.com)
New spinosaurids from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, UK) and the European origins of Spinosauridae (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
New species of dinosaur unearthed by Isle of Wight fossil hunters (bbc.com)
Riparovenator (en.wikipedia.org)
Riparovenator in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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