Ichtheovenator

***Ichthyovenator*** is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now Laos, sometime between 125 and 113 million years ago, during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous period. It is known from fossils collected from the Grès supérieurs Formation of the Savannakhet Basin, the first of which were found in 2010, and comprised a partial skeleton without the skull or limbs. This specimen became the holotype of the new genus and species ***Ichthyovenator laosensis***, and was described by palaeontologist Ronan Allain and colleagues in 2012. The generic name, meaning "fish hunter", refers to its assumed piscivorous lifestyle, while the specific name alludes to the country of Laos. In 2014, it was announced that more remains from the dig site had been recovered; these fossils include teeth, more vertebrae (backbones) and a pubic bone from the same individual.

In 2016, Gregory S. Paul estimated *Ichthyovenator* to have been approximately 8.5 metres (28 ft) long and to have weighed 2 tonnes (2.2 short tons; 2.0 long tons).[7] The same year, Rubén Molina-Pérez and Asier Larramendi gave an estimate of 10.5 m (34 ft) in length, 2.95 m (9 ft 8 in) tall at the hips, and 2.4 t (2.6 short tons; 2.4 long tons) in weight.[8]

*Ichthyovenator*'s teeth were conical, straight, and bore no serrations.[5] The front edges of the maxillary and dentary teeth were evident on the base of the tooth crown.[6] The front articulating surfaces of *Ichthyovenator*'s rear cervical and front dorsal vertebrae were one-and-a-half times wider than they were high and wider than the length of their centra. They also bore robust front tubercles (processes for skeletal muscle attachment) and lacked interzygapophyseal laminae (bony plates), which resulted in their spinopre- and spinopostzygapophyseal fossae (depressions) having open undersides. The first dorsal vertebra had extensive transverse processes (wing-like projections that articulate with the ribs), as well as deep excavations at the front and back of its base that were filled by air sacs in life. The parapophyses (processes that articulated with the capitulum of the ribs) increased in height from the rear cervicals to the first dorsal; its underside remained in contact with the front lower edge of the centrum. This is unlike the condition in most theropods, in which the parapophyses shifted towards the top of the vertebra during the transition from cervical to dorsal vertebrae. All of these features were also present in *Sigilmassasaurus*. *Ichthyovenator*'s mid-cervical vertebrae had elongate, somewhat wider-than-tall centra that became progressively shorter towards the rear of the neck, as well as well-developed keels on their bottom surfaces, traits that were shared with the spinosaurids *Baryonyx, Suchomimus*, *Sigilmassasaurus*,[6] and *Vallibonavenatrix*.[9] The cervical neural spines of *Ichthyovenator* were taller than in *Sigilmassasaurus* and *Baryonyx* but shared the blade-like shape with those two taxa at the mid-cervicals.[6] The holotype dorsal rib, which was found near the twelfth dorsal vertebra, had a head typical of the ribs of other moderate-to-large-sized theropods. The rib shaft formed a half-circle. The rib's lower end was slightly expanded both sideways and to the front and back. This condition, which differs from the tapered, pointed tips seen in the ribs of other theropods, suggests the rearmost dorsal ribs articulated with the complex of the sternum (breast bone)