Australovenator

*Australovenator wintonensis* (pronounced **awst-ra-lo-ven-a-tor win-toe-nen-sis** and meaning 'Southern Hunter') is a medium sixed, carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period and therefore can be found from Certaceous fossils. They are believed to be duirnal (active during the day) and were bipedal, possessing a similar posture to stereotypical 'raptors'. They are adept terrestrial hunters and therefore are not well adapted for swimming. It is one of the three planned carnivores for the 1.0.0 release.

## Basic Information

* **Scientific Name:** *Australovenator wintonensis*
* **Personality:** Aggressive
* **Health Points Range:** 120-80 (60-40 hearts)
* **Food Points:** 80 (30 food shanks)
* **Attack Damage Range:** 9-7 (4.5-3.5 hearts)
* **Modeller:** Kangalia
* **Update Introduced:** 1.0.0

## Genetics

The Australovenator has a genetic code length of 22 and this code influences their appearance, speed, size, attack damage and health.

### Appearance

The Australovenator is a medium-sized, bi-pedal, megaraptoran therapod. The males are approximately 2.5 blocks tall at the head and 7.5 blocks long, while the females are slightly smaller and the babies are a quarter of the size of the males.

The Australovenator's appearance is based on their genetics and therefore they can have a whole myriad of colour ands pattern combinations. Their different colour regions are their base colour, their underside, and their pattern colour. They also have several different patterns, all of which can be different colours, and some patterns have sexual dimorphic differences. Males also exhibit a highlight, which can be different colours, and while females possess the genetics for this, their's is not outwardly displayed. The Australovenator also has two other colour morphs, albino and melanistic, which can have different patterns and colours, but these morphs take precidence over the rest of their genetics and so influence the colour of the dinosaur. The babies of this species are always a lighter colour than the adults and so not exhibit a visible pattern until they grow older.

## Behaviour

The Australovenator will attack all passive vanilla animals and the player if their mood is low. It may also try and attack some of the smaller herbivories in the mod, although the success of this will vary depending on the herbivore. However, as it is a carnivore, it will not eat fish or prehistoric aquatic creatures. It was not considered to be a cannibal and is instead a pack-oriented animal, and therefore it is safe to house several Australovenator together in the same enclosure. However, they have a max pack limit of 10 both within their own species and when including other species. They also have a minimum pack limit of 4 and if this isn't met, the Australovenator grow lonely and this negatively impacts their hunger, enrichment, and healing. They are diurnal (only active during the day), and from the moment they are hatched, take eight in game days to grow to adulthood. The Australovenator will set their home to the nest they hatch on and when set, will only roam up to a certain radius around their nest, which is influenced by their sex and age. Males roam up to 64 blocks away, females 48, juveniles 24, children 10 and babies 4.

### Feeding

The Australovenator, as a carnivore, will eat all kinds of meat and can also be fed through live prey such as all passive farm animals and some small prehistoric herbivoures. They will also eat from a ground feeder that is nearby and has meat in it.

### Taming

In order to safely interact with a Australovenator, you're going to want to tame it. Otherwise, it will most likely try to attack you. The babies, on the other hand, are inherently shy and non-aggressive, and will run away from the player when they approach. Currently the method of taming is still WIP, and taming mechanics may not be implemented in the initial 1.0.0 release.

### Breeding

As long as two Australovenator of opposite genders are close enough together, then breeding can start to occur. A female Australovenator will lay anywhere between 1-4 eggs. For the eggs to hatch, they must be either laid on a nest (where there is a small chance for a female to seek out a nest before laying their eggs instead of simply laying them where they breed), or collected and then placed onto one. On average, hatching will take between five to ten minutes.

## Real Life

*Australovenator* is an extinct genus of megaraptoran theropod dinosaur from the Cenomanian age (Late Cretaceous). It's fossils were discovered in the Winton Formation (95 million years ago) in Australia. Scientists have proposed that this is a sister taxon to the Fukuiraptor, although some phylogenetic analyses prefer to place it closer to a member of the Megaraptora.

The Australovenator was estimated to be approximately 6 metres long and with a body mass of 500 kilograms. It was relatively lightweight and so coined the "cheetah of its time". It's hands were also incredibly flexible, with only Dilophosaurus becoming anywhere close, and so it was believed to have specialised in prey capture with its hands so its comparatively weaker jaw could eat prey. The Australovenator most likely would have lived in a steppe environment surrounded by native ferns with little tall cover and so mostly likely was specialised for hunting in wide open spaces.

### References

* White, M. A.; Falkingham, P. L.; Cook, A. G.; Hocknull, S. A.; Elliott, D. A. (2013). "Morphological comparisons of metacarpal I for Australovenator wintonensis and Rapator ornitholestoides: Implications for their taxonomic relationships". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 37 (4): 435–441.
* Paul, Gregory S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-78684-190-2.
* White, Matt A.; Bell, Phil R.; Cook, Alex G.; Barnes, David G.; Tischler, Travis R.; Bassam, Brant J.; Elliott, David A. (2015-09-14). "Forearm Range of Motion in Australovenator wintonensis (Theropoda, Megaraptoridae)". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0137709.

Written by **Kangalia**