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[]
Speculative size compared to a human
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.[2] The holotype specimen, BP/1/5243, consists of both premaxillae, a fragment of the maxilla, two dentary fragments, a partial surangular bone, a partial angular bone, a partial prearticular bone, 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.
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 or group. According to Yates in 2005 Dracovenator can be distinguished on the basis of the following features. The presence of a large bilobed fossa surrounding a large lateral premaxillary foramen that is connected to the alveolar margin by a narrow deep canal. A deep, oblique notch on the lateral surface of the articular part of the bone, separating the retroarticular process from the posterior margin of the glenoid cavity. Particularly well developed dorsal tongue-shaped processes on the articular bone, one of them on the medial side, just posterior to the opening of the chorda tympani foramen and the second laterally on the anterolateral margin of the fossa for the depressor mandibularis muscle.
Discovery[]
Drawing of the known skull bones. Scale bar equals 10 cm.
The type specimen, BP/1/5243 of D. regenti, was formally described by Yates in 2006.
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[]
Juvenile Dracovenator regenti snout on display at the Royal Ontario Museum
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:
| Neotheropoda |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Life reconstruction of Dracovenator regenti
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.
 |
Read more Dracovenator on Jurassic Park Wiki |