Concavenator

*Concavenator corcovatus*

Tim Bradley Artwork

### Name Means

"Humped/Hump backed/Hump-backed/Humpback/Hunchback/Hunchbacked/Hunch-backed Hunter from Cuenca" or "Cuenca hunter With a hump/humpback/humped back/hump on its back/hunchback/hunched back" (specific name)
"Hunter from Cuenca" or "Cuenca hunter" (generic name)

### Time

Early Cretaceous (Barremian), 130-125.45 Ma

### Taxon

Theropoda, Carcharodontosauridae

***Concavenator corcovatus*** ("Hunchback Hunter from Cuenca") is a species of theropod from Spain found in September 8, 2010. It lived approximately 130 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period (Barremian stage). The type species is *C. corcovatus*; *Concavenator corcovatus* means "hump backed hunter from Cuenca". The fossil was discovered in the Las Hoyas fossil site of Spain by paleontologists José Luis Sanz, Francisco Ortega and Fernando Escaso from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the National University of Distance Learning. It can have one to two humps, similar to spinosaurids, on it's back which is speculated to being used for body heat, storing body fat, and it is being argued that it could also be used for communication. *Concavenator* can grow to be 20 feet long and it's hump can grow to be 16 inches long. It has been speculated that the hump was brightly colored, thus making it noticeable from a mile away. If a *Concavenator* was healthy, its hump would be large, probably making it a significant mate and deterring possible rivals and other theropods. *Concavenator* also likely had proto-feathers on it's arms, giving more evidence to the theory that most dinosaurs had plumage, proto-feathers and a more direct relation to modern avians.

## Description

*Concavenator* was a medium-sized (roughly 6 meters (20 feet) long) primitive carcharodontosaurian dinosaur possessing several unique features. Two extremely tall vertebrae in front of the hips formed a tall but narrow and pointed crest (possibly supporting a hump) on the dinosaur's back.[3] The function of such crests is currently unknown. Paleontologist Roger Benson from Cambridge University speculated that one possibility is that "it is analogous to head-crests used in visual displays", but the Spanish scientists who discovered it noted it could also be a thermal regulator.

Additionally, the forelimb (ulna) of *Concavenator* preserved evidence of what may be quill knobs or homologous structures, an anatomical feature so far known only in animals with large, quilled feathers on the forelimb.

## Feathers and scales

*Concavenator* had structures resembling quill knobs on its forearm, a feature known only in birds and other feathered theropods, such as *Velociraptor*. Quill knobs are created by ligaments which attach to the feather follicle, and since scales do not form from follicles, the authors ruled out the possibility that they could indicate the presence of long display scales on the arm. Instead, the knobs probably anchored simple, hollow, quill-like structures. Such structures are known both in coelurosaurs such as *Dilong* and in some ornithischians like *Tianyulong* and *Psittacosaurus*. If the ornithischian quills are homologous with bird feathers, their presence in an allosauroid like *Concavenator* would be expected. However, if ornithischian quills are not related to feathers, the presence of these structures in *Concavenator* would show that feathers had begun to appear in earlier, more primitive forms than coelurosaurs. Feathers or related structures would then likely be present in the first members of the clade Neotetanurae, which lived in the Middle Jurassic. No impressions of any kind of integument were found near the arm, although extensive scale impressions were preserved on other portions of the body, including broad, rectangular scales on the underside of the tail, bird-like scutes on the feet, and plantar pads on the undersides of the feet.

## Classification

The following cladogram after Novas *et al.*, 2013, shows its place within Carcharodontosauridae.

## Appearance in other media

### *Jurassic Park*

* *Concavenator* itself doesn't appear in the *Jurassic Park* movies, although it appears as a statue in a diorama in the Lockwood Manor in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
* *Concavenator*  is one of the animals that you can get in Jurassic World: Alive.
* *Concavenator* appears in Jurassic World: The Game as a VIP carnivore in the solid gold pack.