Skorpiovenator bustingorryi Skorpiovenator
"short snouts"
- Length
- 4.3 m (14.3 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (99.6–89.8 Mya)
- Place
- Argentina
- Food
- Carnivore
- Clade
- Abelisauridae
Skorpiovenator (“scorpion hunter”) is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Turonian) Huincul Formation of Argentina. The sole species of Skorpiovenator, S. bustingorryi, was named in honour of Manuel Bustingorry, the late owner of the farm on which the type specimen was discovered. Formally described in 2009, the type specimen is one of the most complete and informative abelisaurids yet known, described from a nearly complete and articulated skeleton. A tibia fragment was assigned to Skorpiovenator in 2022.
Skorpiovenator was a fairly large abelisaurid. What is preserved of the type specimen measures 4.35 m in length. Based on the anatomy of close relatives, it may have been between 6 – 6.2 m long in life, and may have weighed a little under 900 kg. Its skull was short and blunt, and somewhat resembled that of Carnotaurus.
What we know
- Named by Canale et al. 2009.
- Body length estimated at about 4.35 m.
- Fossils found in Argentina.