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Xenovenator

Say it: ZEE-no-ven-ay-tor

Name means: “strange hunter”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsLate Cretaceous

Xenovenator was a small, bird-like dinosaur that lived in North America near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It had a thick, bony dome on its skull, which it may have used to head-butt rivals like some sheep do today.1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Coahuila, Mexico, and New Mexico, USA3 1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Xenovenator is a troodontid, a group of smart, bird-like dinosaurs that were close relatives of birds.1

The skull roof of Xenovenator was unusually thick and bumpy, similar to the dome of a pachycephalosaur.1

Scientists think Xenovenator may have head-butted other members of its species, a behavior never before seen in this group of dinosaurs.1

The dome on the skull may have grown larger and more fused as the animal got older.1

Xenovenator lived about 74 to 72 million years ago, during the late Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1

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

?How big was Xenovenator?

About the size of a cassowary, roughly 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) tall.2

?Where was Xenovenator found?

In the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila, Mexico.1

?What does the name Xenovenator mean?

It means 'strange hunter' in Greek and Latin.1

?Was Xenovenator a dinosaur?

Yes, it was a small, bird-like theropod dinosaur.1

?When did Xenovenator live?

It lived about 74 to 72 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Xenovenator
Named by: Rivera-Sylva et al. 20263
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Kirtland, Cerro del Pueblo3
Countries: USA, Mexico3
Fossil records: 5 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Xenovenator was named in 2026 by Héctor Rivera-Sylva and colleagues based on skull bones found in the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Mexico. The first bones were collected in 2000 by Martha Aguillón-Martinez.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether the dome was present only in adults or only in one sex, because some specimens lack the dome.1

Where the facts come from

Xenovenator (en.wikipedia.org)
You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small Dinosaur - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Xenovenator 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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