Australovenator

Chapter • Meet the dinosaur

Overview

Australovenator wintonensis was a slender, long-legged predatory dinosaur from what is now inland Queensland, Australia. At roughly five to six and a half metres long and with body-mass estimates usually falling between 500 and 1,000 kilograms, it was no rival to Tyrannosaurus in bulk, yet it was the largest known hunter in its ecosystem. It carried its body horizontally, balanced over the hips by a long, stiffened tail that never touched the ground. The legs were long and gracile, while the arms were powerfully built and ended in three fingers tipped with huge, strongly curved claws – the largest hand claw measures about 25 centimetres along its outer curve. Because most recent analyses place megaraptorans within Coelurosauria, it is plausible that Australovenator bore at least a partial covering of simple filament-like feathers, though no skin or feather impressions are known for this species. Everything about its skeleton points to an agile, fast-moving animal. The long lower legs and narrow metatarsals resemble those of modern cursorial animals, and lead author Scott Hocknull described it at the time of publication as 'the cheetah of its time'. Unlike tyrannosaurids, which killed with their jaws, Australovenator seems to have relied on its arms and claws. Its jaws were comparatively narrow and its teeth blade-like and serrated – tools for slicing flesh rather than crushing bone. Whether it hunted alone or in groups is unknown; every specimen found so far represents a single individual. Prey was abundant. The Winton Formation has yielded the sauropods Diamantinasaurus and Wintonotitan, smaller plant-eating ornithopods, turtles, crocodyliforms, lungfish and a rich flora. A predator of this size most likely targeted medium-sized herbivores and juvenile sauropods, and would certainly have scavenged carcasses when the chance arose. The first bones were excavated in 2006 at Elderslie Station near the town of Winton, Queensland, from clay that once formed the bed of an ancient billabong. The skeleton was nicknamed 'Banjo' after the poet Banjo Paterson, who wrote 'Waltzing Matilda' in the district. Scott Hocknull and colleagues named the species in 2009, in the same paper that introduced the sauropods 'Matilda' (Diamantinasaurus) and 'Clancy' (Wintonotitan). Later excavations and studies through the 2010s, led by Matt White and co-workers, added almost complete fore- and hindlimbs, making Australovenator by far the most complete predatory dinosaur skeleton ever found in Australia.

Chapter • Where it lived

Habitat

Australovenator lived about 95 million years ago, during the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous, in the Winton Formation of central Queensland, Australia. The landscape was a vast, low-lying floodplain crossed by meandering rivers and dotted with swamps and abandoned channels (billabongs), surrounded by forests of conifers, ginkgoes, ferns and early flowering plants. The climate was warm and humid, but Australia then lay far to the south, close to the polar circle, giving long, dark winters. The holotype was excavated at Elderslie Station near Winton, and additional material has come from several sites in the same formation.

Chapter • Wild behavior

Behavior & Ecology

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Chapter • Scientific place

Taxonomy