Neovenator

What it was like

Neovenator was a mid-sized predator that ran on two legs, with a long skull and blade-like teeth for tearing flesh. It grew to about 7.4 meters (24 feet) long. Its snout was covered in rough, pitted bone, a feature also seen in some of its larger relatives, though scientists still debate exactly what it was for.

Its world

Neovenator lived in what is now the United Kingdom during the Early Cretaceous, between about 126 and 121 million years ago. Its remains, from a single find, come from the Wessex Formation.

It shared its world with the plant eaters Iguanodon, Hypsilophodon, and the armored Polacanthus, as well as other predators including Baryonyx, Megalosaurus, and Eotyrannus.

How it was found

Hutt and colleagues named Neovenator in 1996, giving it the type species Neovenator salerii. It is the namesake of Neovenatoridae, a family related to Fukuiraptor and Chilantaisaurus. A large portion of its skeleton is known, unusually complete for a theropod of its age, though where exactly it fits among the large predatory dinosaurs has shifted as new studies have come out.