''Taurovenator'', from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''taurus'', meaning "bull", and ''venator'', meaning "hunter", is an extinct genus of large

carcharodontosaurid Carcharodontosauridae (carcharodontosaurids; from the Greek καρχαροδοντόσαυρος, ''carcharodontósauros'': "shark-toothed lizards") is a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931, Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae ...

theropod Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...

dinosaurs that lived in what is now Argentina during the

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...

age of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

, around 95 to 93.9 million years ago. Initially only known from a single

postorbital The ''postorbital'' is one of the bones in vertebrate skulls which forms a portion of the dermal skull roof and, sometimes, a ring about the orbit. Generally, it is located behind the postfrontal and posteriorly to the orbital fenestra. In some ve ...

skull bone described from the

Huincul Formation The Huincul Formation is a geologic formation of Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Turonian, Early Turonian) age of the Neuquén Basin that outcrops in the Mendoza Province, Mendoza, Rio Negro Province, Río Negro and Neuquén Provinces of northern ...

, ''Taurovenator violantei'' was named in 2016 by Argentine paleontologist Matias Motta and colleagues. Debate came about over the validity of the species, with some paleontologists arguing that ''Taurovenator'' was synonymous with the earlier-named carcharodontosaurid ''

Mapusaurus ''Mapusaurus'' ( Earth lizard) is a genus of giant carcharodontosaurid carnosaurian dinosaur that lived in Argentina during the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous. Discovery ''Mapusaurus'' was excavated between 1997 and 2001, by the Argen ...

''. However, the 2024 description of a well-preserved partial skull and skeleton referrable to ''Taurovenator'' aided in distinguishing the two taxa.

Discovery and naming

Initial discovery and description

In 2005, a right

of a

dinosaur was unearthed by Argentine paleontologist Matias Motta from a section of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

deriving from the lower member of the

, dating to the

stage of the

(95-93.9 million years old). The strata located on the Violante Farm, a farm located in

Rio Negro Province Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

, Argentina. This fossil was found in the vicinity of the

megaraptora Megaraptora is a clade of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. Its derived members, the Megaraptoridae are noted for their large hand claws and powerfully-built forelimbs, which are usually reduced in size in other large theropods. Although undoubt ...

n ''

Aoniraptor ''Aoniraptor'' is an extinct genus of megaraptoran theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Huincul Formation of Argentina. The genus contains a single species, ''Aoniraptor libertatem'', known from a partial skeleton. Discovery and naming ...

,'' several abelisauroids, and a possible

unenlagiine Unenlagiinae is a subfamily of long-snouted paravian theropods. They are traditionally considered to be members of Dromaeosauridae, though some authors place them into their own family, Unenlagiidae, sometimes alongside the subfamily Halszkarapt ...

paravian Paraves are a widespread group of theropod dinosaurs that originated in the Middle Jurassic period. In addition to the extinct dromaeosaurids, troodontids, anchiornithids, and possibly the scansoriopterygids, the group also contains the av ...

. The fossils recovered were then transported to the

Museo Provincial "Carlos Ameghino" Museo may refer to: * ''Museum'' (2018 film), Mexican drama heist film * Museo station, station on line 1 of the Naples Metro {{disambiguation ...

, with the isolated postorbital deposited under catalogue number MPCA-Pv 803. This postorbital remained undescribed until in 2016, when Matias Motta and colleagues described the postorbital as 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 ...

(name-bearing specimen) of a new

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

and

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

dinosaur, ''Taurovenator violantei''. ''Taurovenator'' was then the second carcharodontosaurid described from the Huincul Formation, with ''

'' named in 2006 based on several incomplete skeletons.Coria, R. A., & Currie, P. J. (2006)
A new carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina.
''Geodiversitas'', ''28''(1), 71-118. The generic name ''Taurovenator'' means "bull hunter", derived from the

roots ''taurus'' "bull" and ''venor'' "hunter" whereas the specific name is in honor of Violante Farm where the postorbital was unearthed.

Validity debate and additional specimen

''Taurovenator'' went largely unnoticed due to its fragmentary nature, with Coria et al. (2019) suggesting that ''Taurovenator'' is synonymous with ''Mapusaurus'', considering both of its original autapomorphies as shared with ''Mapusaurus'' and also pointing out that both taxa shared a curved lateral margin of the

palpebral An eyelid ( ) is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid, exposing the cornea to the outside, giving vision. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. "Palpebral" ...

. Additionally, the authors considered that there was a high likelihood of them being

coeval {{Short pages monitor