Dracovenator

*Dracovenator regenti*

 ***Dracovenator***  (pron.:"DRAK-o-vee-NAY-tor") is an extinct genus of dilophosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 201 to 199 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now South Africa. *Dracovenator* was a medium sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, that could grow up to an estimated 7 m (23.0 ft) long. The type specimen of this dinosaur was based on only a partial skull that was recovered.

## Description

*Dracovenator* is estimated to have measured between 5.5 and 6.5 meters (18 and 21 ft) in length. Others estimates suggest that *Dracovenator* was at best 7 m (23 ft) long and weighed 400 kilograms (882 pounds) at most. The holotype specimen, consists of both premaxillae, a fragment of the maxilla, two dentaryfragments, a partial surangular bone, a partial angular bone, a partial prearticularbone, an articular bone, and several teeth. *Dracovenator* has a kink in its upper jaws, between the maxilla and the premaxilla. The back end of the lower jaw features an array of lumps and bumps, a condition seen in *Dilophosaurus*, but to a much smaller extent. Munyikwa and Raath (1999) reassigned paratype BP/1/5278, which was originally assigned to *Syntarsus rhodesiensis*, to *Dracovenator*, a juvenile specimen which consists of bones from the front of the skull, teeth, and jaw bones.

## Discovery

The genus name is a contraction of the Latin words draco meaning "dragon", and venator meaning "hunter"; thus, "dragon hunter". "Draco" refers to its discovery in the foothills of Drakensberg, which is "Dragon’s Mountain" in the Dutch language. The specific name, *regenti*, was named in the honor of the late Regent ‘Lucas’ Huma, who was Professor Kitching’s field assistant. *Dracovenator* was described and named by Adam M. Yates in 2006 and the type species is *Dracovenator regenti*.

## Classification

Yates (2005) assigned *Dracovenator* to the clade Neotheropoda.The first cladisticanalysis found that this genus formed a clade with the basal theropods *Dilophosaurus* and *Zupaysaurus*. The skull of the type specimen, exhibits a mosaic of both ancestral and derived theropod characteristics. The following cladogram, based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Smith, Makovicky, Pol, Hammer, and Currie in 2007, outlines the relationships of *Dracovenator* and its close relatives:

### Distinguishing anatomical features

A diagnosis is a statement of the anatomical features of an organism (or group) that collectively distinguish it from all other organisms. Some, but not all, of the features in a diagnosis are also autapomorphies. An autapomorphy is a distinctive anatomical feature that is unique to a given organism.

According to Yates (2005) *Dracovenator* can be distinguished based on the following characteristics:

* the presence of a large bilobed fossa surrounding a large lateral premaxillary foramen that is connected to the alveolar margin by a deep narrow channel;
* a deep, oblique notch on the lateral surface of the articular bone, separating the retroarticular process from the posterior margin of the glenoid
* a particularly well-developed dorsal, tab-like processes on the articular bone-the first on the medial side, just posterior to the opening of the chorda tympanic foramen and the second on the lateral side on the anterolateral margin of the fossa for the m. depressor mandibulae.

## Paleoecology

The Upper Elliot Formation is thought to have been an ancient floodplain. Fossils of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus and Plateosaurus have been recovered from the Upper Elliot Formation, which boasts the world's most diverse fauna of early Jurassic ornithischian dinosaurs, including Abrictosaurus, Fabrosaurus, Heterodontosaurus, and Lesothosaurus, among others. The Forest Sandstone Formation was the paleoenvironment of protosuchid crocodiles, sphenodonts, the dinosaur Massospondylus and indeterminate remains of a prosauropod. Dracovenator is thought to have preyed on the prosauropod dinosaurs in its paleoenvironment.

## Appearance in other media

### *Jurassic Park*

* *Dracovenator* appear in the Jurassic Park Franchise for the first time in the cancelled game Jurassic World: Primal Ops as a common dinosaur of the *Dilophosaurus* family.
* It appear in the 2,23 Update of Jurassic World: Alive as one of the second first non-hybrid unique dinosaur alongside *Ceratosaurus*.