NAME

Meaning - Afrovenator means “African hunter”
Pronounced - AF-ro-vee-NAY-tor
Named By - Paul Sereno, J. A. Wilson, Larsson, Dutheil and H. D. Sues, 1994
When Named - 1994

DIET

Carnivore (meat-eater)

SIZE

Length - 27-30 ft (8-9 m) long
Height - 7.5 ft (2.3 m) tall at the hips
Weight - ?

WHEN IT LIVED

Early Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago.

WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in Abaka, Niger, Africa, in the southern Sahara desert.

FOSSILS

A nearly complete Afrovenator was found in 1993. It is the most complete Cretaceous period carnivore found in Africa so far.

CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Tetanura - advanced theropods with three fingers
  • Genus Afrovenator
  • Species A. abakensis (type species named by Sereno, J. A. Wilson, Larsson, Dutheil and Sues, 1994)
INTERESTING FACTS

Afrovenator was a bipedal, meat-eating, three-fingered, stiff-tailed predator that had 2-inch-long bladelike teeth. It was related to Allosaurus.