Afrovenator

*Afrovenator abakensis*

***Afrovenator*** ("African hunter") is an extinct genus of megalosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of west Africa. It was a bipedal predator, with a mouthful of sharp teeth and three claws on each hand. Judging from the one skeleton known, this dinosaur was approximately 30 feet (9 meters) long from snout to tail tip.

The generic name comes from the Latin prefix *afro-* ("from Africa") *venator* ("hunter"). There is one named species, *A. abakensis*. The name refers to its predatory nature, and its location in Africa, specifically from In Abaka, the Tuareg name for the region of Niger where the fossils were found. The original description of both genus and species is found in a 1994 paper which appeared in the prestigious journal *Science*. The primary author was well-known American paleontologist Paul Sereno, with Jeffrey Wilson, Hans Larsson, Didier Dutheil, and Hans-Dieter Sues as coauthors.

## Description

It was a bipedal predator, with a mouthful of sharp teeth and three claws on each hand. Judging from the one skeleton known, this dinosaur was approximately 9 meters long from snout to tail tip.

The remains of *Afrovenator* were discovered in the Tiourarén Formation of the department of Agadez in Niger. The Tiourarén was originally thought to represent the Hauterivian to Barremian stages of the early Cretaceous Period, or approximately 136 to 125 million years ago (Sereno et al. 1994).

However, re-interpretation of the sediments showed that they are probably mid-Jurassic in age, dating *Afrovenator* to the Bathonian to Oxfordian stages, between 164 and 161 mya. The sauropod *Jobaria*, whose remains were first mentioned in the same paper which named *Afrovenator*, is also known from this formation. *Afrovenator* is known from a single nearly complete skeleton, featuring most of the skull (minus the mandible, or lower jaw), parts of the spinal column, hands, and forelimbs, a nearly complete pelvis, and complete hind limbs. This skeleton is housed at the University of Chicago.

## Discovery

The remains of *Afrovenator* were discovered in 1993 in the Tiouraren Formation of the department of Agadez in Niger. The Tiouraren was originally thought to represent the Hauterivian to Barremian stages of the early Cretaceous period, or approximately 132 to 125 million years ago. However, re-interpretation of the sediments showed that they are probably Mid-Jurasic in age, dating *Afrovenator* to the Bathonian to Oxfordian stages, between 167 and 161 mya. The Sauropod Jobaria, whose remains were first mentioned in the same paper which named *Afrovenator*, is also known from this formation.

*Afrovenator* is known from a single relatively complete skeleton, holotype UC OBA 1, featuring most of the skull minus its top (likewise the mandible, or lower jaws, are lacking apart from the prearticular bone), parts of the spinal column, partial forelimbs, a partial pelvis, and parts of the hind limbs. This skeleton is housed at the University of Chicago.

## Taxonomy

Most analyses place *Afrovenator* within Megalosauridae, which was formerly a "wastebasket family" which contained many large and hard-to-classify theropods, but has since been redefined in a meaningful way[1], as a sister taxon to the family Spinosauridae within the Megalosauroidea.

A 2002 analysis, focused mainly on the noasaurids, found *Afrovenator* to be a basal megalosaurid. However, it did not include *Dubreuillosaurus* (formerly *Poekilopleuron valesdunesis*), which could affect the results in that region of the cladogram (Carrano et al. 2002). Other recent, more complete, cladistic analyses show *Afrovenator* in a subfamily of Megalosauridae with *Eustreptospondylus* and *Dubreuillosaurus*. This subfamily is either called Megalosaurinae (Allain 2002) or Eustreptospondylinae (Holtz et al. 2004). The latter study also includes *Piatnitzkysaurus* in this subfamily.

A few alternative hypotheses have been presented for *Afrovenator'*s relationships. In Sereno's original description, *Afrovenator* was found to be a basal spinosauroid (he uses the name "Torvosauroidea"), outside of Spinosauridae and Megalosauridae (which he calls "Torvosauridae") (Sereno et al. 1994). Finally, another recent study places *Afrovenator* outside of Megalosauroidea completely, and instead finds it more closely related to *Allosaurus* (Rauhut 2003). This is the only study to draw this conclusion.[2]

## JPInstitute.com Description

Afrovenator was the first almost complete skeleton found of a large African meat-eating dinosaur. It was unearthed in 1993 by an amateur fossil hunter who was on a National Geographic-sponsored expedition. This dinosaur was medium-sized and built for a life of active hunting, with long, strong back legs and large, strong arms designed for catching and holding its prey.

Afrovenator appears to be descended from earlier dinosaurs such as Megalosaurus. As this family was widely spread through ancient Europe and possibly South America, it is not surprising that a relation would also have lived in Africa as its ancestors may have passed through. The only major Afrovenator parts missing from the type specimen are most of the lower jaw, the nose, some ribs and vertebrae, and toe bones. All in all, it is a remarkably complete specimen.

## Links

http://web.archive.org/web/20031006001053/http://www.jpinstitute.com/dinopedia/dinocards/dc\_afrov.html