''Fosterovenator'' (meaning "Foster's hunter") is a genus of

ceratosaur Ceratosaurs are members of the clade Ceratosauria, a group of dinosaurs defined as all theropods sharing a more recent common ancestor with ''Ceratosaurus'' than with birds. The oldest known ceratosaur, ''Saltriovenator'', dates to the earliest ...

dinosaur known from the

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen ...

Morrison Formation The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

is YPM VP 058267A, B, and C, a

tibia The tibia (; : tibiae or tibias), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two Leg bones, bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outsi ...

with an articulated

astragalus Astragalus may refer to: * ''Astragalus'' (plant), a large genus of herbs and small shrubs *Astragalus (bone) The talus (; Latin for ankle or ankle bone; : tali), talus bone, astragalus (), or ankle bone is one of the group of foot bones known ...

. An additional specimen is known, the

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

YPM VP 058267D, a

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

of a larger individual. The

remains were discovered in 1879 by

Arthur Lakes Arthur Lakes (December 21, 1844—November 21, 1917) was an American geologist, artist, writer, teacher and Episcopalian minister. He captured much of his geological and palaeontological field work in sketches and watercolours. Lakes is credite ...

Como Bluff Como Bluff is a long ridge extending east–west, located between the towns of Rock River and Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The ridge is an anticline, formed as a result of compressional geological folding. Three geological formations, the Sundance, ...

, Wyoming, and consist of a nearly-complete right

with a co-ossified

, probably of a juvenile. The

consists of a complete right

measuring in length and belonging to a much larger individual. The overall shape of the known material is similar to that of ''

Elaphrosaurus ''Elaphrosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of ceratosaurian Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic, Late Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. ''Elaphrosaurus'' was a medium- ...

''. However, ceratosaurian affinities of ''Fosterovenator'' (at least of the paratype) have been questioned.

Etymology

The generic name ''Fosterovenator'' was named in 2014 by S. G. Dalman for John Russell Foster and the Latin word ''venator'' ("hunter"). The specific name ''churei'' is named for Daniel J. Chure.

References

Ceratosauria Dinosaur genera Kimmeridgian dinosaurs Morrison Formation Fossil taxa described in 2014 Dinosaurs of the United States {{Theropod-stub

Etymology

See also

References