page_title: Neovenator
section_title: Senses
hierarchical_section_title: Neovenator / Palaeobiology / Senses
caption_attribution_description: English: (A) Articulated premaxilla and maxilla of Neovenator holotype MIWG 6348 in left lateral view (Credit: Roger Benson). (B) Volume rendering of the segmented neurovascular network overlaid on the articulated premaxilla and maxilla. (C–E) μCT virtual sections showing lateral placement of the neurovasculature (white arrows).
context_page_description: Neovenator, which means "new hunter", is a genus of allosauroid dinosaur. At the time of its discovery on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, it was the best-known large carnivorous dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now Europe.
context_section_description: Chris Barker and colleagues suggested that Neovenator may have possessed integumentary sensory organs on its snout, much as modern waterfowl and crocodilians use to find food in muddy water, based on neurovascular structures found on the skull. As Neovenator is believed to be completely terrestrial, unlike the modern species, it is assumed that these sensory organs were used for other purposes, such as sensitivity to pressure and temperature, controlling jaw pressure and precision feeding. In support of this, the tooth wear for Neovenator seems to indicate that it avoided eating or biting into bone while it fed. Additionally, Neovenator might have used these integumentary sensory organs in courtship and sensing nest conditions, a technique seen today in most species of crocodilians and megapode birds. Though such structures are known for another theropod, the tyrannosaurid Daspletosaurus horneri, Neovenator's neurovascular structures that likely supported these organs are the best preserved and most complete in any known theropod yet discovered.
caption: Premaxilla and maxilla, with neurovascular network and CT sections
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