| Viavenator Temporal range: Santonian
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| Life restoration of Viavenator exxoni | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Abelisauridae |
| Clade: | †Furileusauria |
| Genus: | †Viavenator Filippi et al., 2016 |
| Type species | |
| †Viavenator exxoni Filippi et al., 2016
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Viavenator (meaning "road hunter") is a genus of carnivorous abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in the Santonian-aged (Late Cretaceous) Bajo de la Carpa Formation of Argentina. Only a single species is known, V. exxoni, formally described in 2016 by Filippi and colleagues.
Classification
Filippi et al. classified Viavenator to a new clade known as the Furileusauria,1 which includes it as well as Carnotaurus. This would mean the former taxon was closer to the latter than Majungasaurus. It would have measured 5.6 metres (18 ft) in length.2
Palaeobiology
Viavenator possessed a brain morphology similar to Aucasaurus, another South American abelisaurid, and had a similar inner ear. Compared to the Madagascan abelisaurid Majungasaurus, Viavenator was more reliant on quick movements of the head and sophisticated gaze stabilization mechanisms. However, both genera had a similar range of hearing according to the examinations and subsequent CT scans of the cranium.3
References
References
- Leonardo S. Filippi; Ariel H. Méndez; Rubén D. Juárez Valieri & Alberto C. Garrido (2016). "A new brachyrostran with hypertrophied axial structures reveals an unexpected radiation of latest Cretaceous abelisaurids" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 61: 209–219. Bibcode:2016CrRes..61..209F. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.12.018. hdl:11336/149906.
- Grillo, O. N.; Delcourt, R. (2016). "Allometry and body length of abelisauroid theropods: Pycnonemosaurus nevesi is the new king". Cretaceous Research. 69: 71–89. Bibcode:2017CrRes..69...71G. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2016.09.001.
- "Neuroanatomy of the abelisaurid theropod Viavenator exxoni". 23 June 2017.