Vectaerovenator

Name means: “unexpected Isle of Wight air-filled hunter”1

Ate: MeatOther meat-eatersEarly Cretaceous

Vectaerovenator was a medium-sized meat-eating dinosaur that lived about 115 million years ago. Its bones were full of air pockets, like a bird's, which made its skeleton lighter. It was discovered on a beach in England, surprising scientists because such dinosaurs are rare in those rocks.1 4

Lived

120 to 113 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Knock Cliff, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom4 1

Food

Meat4 1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Vectaerovenator's name means 'unexpected Isle of Wight air-filled hunter' because it was a surprise find in rocks that rarely contain dinosaur fossils.1

Its vertebrae had large air spaces, called camerae, which are also seen in birds and some other theropods.1

The only known fossils are a few neck and back bones, plus a rib, found on a beach at Knock Cliff.1

It lived during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous, about 119 to 113 million years ago.4

Vectaerovenator is the first named theropod dinosaur from the Aptian of Europe that scientists consider a valid species.1

Scientists are not sure exactly which group of theropods Vectaerovenator belongs to, because its bones show a mix of features from different families.1

The fossils were discovered by a group of fossil hunters and later studied by researchers who named the dinosaur in 2020.1

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

?How big was Vectaerovenator?

About 4 metres (13 feet) long, based on the vertebrae. It was not fully grown, so adults may have been somewhat larger.2 3

?What did Vectaerovenator eat?

It was a meat-eating theropod dinosaur, so it ate other animals. Its exact diet is not known from the few bones found.2

?When did Vectaerovenator live?

It lived during the late Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous period, about 115 million years ago.2 3

?Where was Vectaerovenator found?

Its fossils were found on a beach at Knock Cliff on the Isle of Wight, England, in rocks that were once a shallow sea.2 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Vectaerovenator
Named by: Barker et al. 20204
Group: Other meat-eaters
Family / clade: Tetanurae4
Classification: Theropoda4
Age of the rocks: 120 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
Rock formations: Ferruginous Sands4
Countries: United Kingdom4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Vectaerovenator was named in 2020 by Chris Barker and colleagues based on vertebrae found on the foreshore near Knock Cliff on the Isle of Wight, UK. The fossils were collected by several people and are now kept at Dinosaur Isle Museum.1
Still debated: Scientists are unsure whether Vectaerovenator was a type of tyrannosauroid, megalosauroid, or allosauroid because its bones have features of many different groups.1

Where the facts come from

A highly pneumatic middle Cretaceous theropod from the British Lower Greensand (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Vectaerovenator (en.wikipedia.org)
New species of dinosaur discovered on Isle of Wight (phys.org)
Vectaerovenator in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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