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Saltriovenator

Say it: sal-tree-oh-ven-AY-tor

Name means: “Saltrio hunter”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Jurassic

Saltriovenator was a big, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Italy during the Early Jurassic. It was one of the largest and most powerful predators of its time, with strong arms and sharp claws for grabbing prey.2

Lived

200 to 193 million years ago4

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Saltrio, Varese Province, Lombardy, northern Italy2

Food

Meat4

Length

7.5 m2

estimate

Weight

1.16 tonnes to 1.622 tonnes1

estimate

Height

2.2 m1

hip height

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?

hip height

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1 cars

as long as 8 dogs nose to tailas long as 42 bananas end to endas heavy as 54 big dogsas heavy as 320 watermelonsabout as tall as a door

How big was Saltriovenator compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Saltriovenator is the oldest known ceratosaurian dinosaur, living about 198 million years ago.2

It was discovered in a marble quarry in the Italian Alps, and the bones were scattered by explosives used in the quarry.2

Saltriovenator was about 7.5 meters (25 feet) long, making it the largest theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic.2

Its hand had three functional fingers with strong claws, unlike later ceratosaurians which had weaker hands.2

The fossils show signs of being chewed on by marine invertebrates after the dinosaur's body sank into the sea.2

Saltriovenator helps scientists understand how bird hands evolved from dinosaur hands, because it had a more primitive hand structure.2

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

?How big was Saltriovenator?

About 7.5 metres (25 feet) long and weighed around 1,200 to 1,600 kilograms (2,600 to 3,500 pounds). It was the largest known theropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic.2 1 3

?What did Saltriovenator eat?

It was a meat-eater that hunted other dinosaurs and animals. It had strong arms and sharp claws for grabbing prey.1 2

?When did Saltriovenator live?

It lived about 198 million years ago during the Early Jurassic Period.2 1

?Where was Saltriovenator found?

Its fossils were discovered in a marble quarry in Saltrio, northern Italy, in the Italian Alps.1 2

?Is Saltriovenator a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a dinosaur. It is a type of meat-eating theropod called a ceratosaurian.1 2

?Why is Saltriovenator important?

It is the oldest known ceratosaurian dinosaur and helps scientists understand how bird hands evolved from dinosaur hands. It also shows that large theropods existed earlier than previously thought.2 1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Saltriovenator
Named by: Dal Sasso et al. 20184
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Ceratosauria4
Classification: Theropoda > Ceratosauria4
Age of the rocks: 200 to 193 million years (Sinemurian)4
Rock formations: Saltrio4
Countries: Italy4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Saltriovenator was discovered by amateur fossil hunter Angelo Zanella in 1996 in a marble quarry near Saltrio, Italy. It was named and described by scientists Cristiano Dal Sasso, Simone Maganuco, and Andrea Cau in 2018.2
Still debated: Scientists are still unsure about the exact body shape of Saltriovenator because only a partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Saltriovenator (en.wikipedia.org)
The oldest ceratosaurian (Dinosauria: Theropoda), from the Lower Jurassic of Italy, sheds light on the evolution of the three-fingered hand of birds (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Big dinosaur predator from Italy was given a burial at sea (reuters.com)
Saltriovenator 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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