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Fosterovenator

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Fosterovenator
Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 155–147 Ma
Skeletal restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: †Ceratosauria
Genus: †Fosterovenator
Dalman, 2014
Type species
†Fosterovenator churei
Dalman, 2014

Fosterovenator (meaning "Foster's hunter") is a genus of ceratosaur dinosaur known from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming. The holotype is YPM VP 058267A, B, and C, a tibia with an articulated astragalus. An additional specimen is known, the paratype YPM VP 058267D, a fibula of a larger individual.[1]

The holotype remains were discovered in 1879 by Arthur Lakes at Como Bluff, Wyoming, and consist of a nearly-complete right tibia with a co-ossified astragalus, probably of a juvenile. The paratype consists of a complete right fibula measuring 27.5 cm (10.8 in) in length and belonging to a much larger individual. The overall shape of the known material is similar to that of Elaphrosaurus.[1] However, ceratosaurian affinities of Fosterovenator (at least of the paratype) have been questioned.[2]

Discovery and naming

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In 1879 during an expedition by paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Arthur Lakes to the Quarry 12 outcrop of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation in Como Bluff, Wyoming, several small theropod fossils were unearthed. The strata of Quarry 12 derive from the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian stages of the Late Jurassic, in numerical terms around 155 to 147 million years old. This was one of many expeditions carried out during the Bone Wars, a competition between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, which collected scores of dinosaur skeletons from the Morrison Formation. Among the theropod fossils collected was a nearly complete right tibia (shin bone) and a co-ossified (joined) astragalus of a juvenile individual. Additionally, a right fibula of an adult individual was unearthed. These fossils were deposited at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut where the right tibia and associated astragalus were given the specimen number YPM VP 058267 A-C whereas the fibula is YPM VP 058267 D. This was one of many dinosaur specimens discovered at Quarry 12 during the late 19th century, with the site producing fossils of the theropods Allosaurus and Torvosaurus,[3][1] sauropods Camarasaurus and Diplodocus, and the ornithischian Stegosaurus.[4][5]

Right fibula, of the paratype specimen YPM VP 058267D

YPM VP 058267 A-D was described in scientific literature in the journal Volumina Jurassica in 2014 by researcher Sebastian G. Dalman. The right tibia and associated astragalus (YPM VP 058267 A-C) were designated the type specimen of a new genus and species, Fosterovenator churei.[1] The generic name Fosterovenator honors paleontologist John R. Foster and the Greek root venator ("hunter"). The specific name churei honors paleontologist Daniel J. Chure.[1] YPM VP 058267 D was made a paratype of Fosterovenator churei, however some have argued that they do not come from the same taxon.[6]

Paleoecology

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The Morrison Formation is a sequence of shallow marine and alluvial sediments which, according to radiometric dating, ranges between 156.3 million years old (Ma) at its base, to ~150 ma at the top, placing it in the late Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, and early Tithonian stages of the Upper Jurassic period.[7][8] The paleoenvironment of the Morrison Formation is interpreted as a semiarid environment with distinct wet and dry seasons, and flat floodplains. Vegetation varied from river-lining forests of conifers, tree ferns, and ferns (gallery forests), to fern savannas with occasional trees such as the Araucaria-like conifer Brachyphyllum.[9] The Morrison Basin where dinosaurs lived stretched from New Mexico to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was formed when the precursors to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains started pushing up to the west. The deposits from their east-facing drainage basins were carried by streams and rivers and deposited in swampy lowlands, lakes, river channels and floodplains.[10]

Dinosaurs known from the Morrison include the theropods Ceratosaurus, Ornitholestes, and Allosaurus, the sauropods Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Diplodocus, and the ornithischians Camptosaurus, Dryosaurus, and Stegosaurus.[11] Other vertebrates that shared this paleoenvironment included ray-finned fishes, frogs, salamanders, turtles, sphenodonts, lizards, pterosaurs, and crocodylomorphs.[12] Shells of bivalves and aquatic snails are also common. The flora of the period has been revealed by fossils of green algae, mosses, horsetails, cycads, ginkgoes, and several families of conifers.[13]

See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fosterovenator.
  1. ^ a b c d e Dalman, S.G. (2014). "New data on small theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Como Bluff, Wyoming, USA" (PDF). Volumina Jurassica. 12 (2): 181–196.
  2. ^ Skawiński, Tomasz; Ziegler, Maciej; Czepiński, Łukasz; Szermański, Marcin; Tałanda, Mateusz; Surmik, Dawid; Niedźwiedzki, Grzegorz (2016). "A re-evaluation of the historical 'dinosaur' remains from the Middle-Upper Triassic of Poland". Historical Biology. 29 (4): 442–472. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1188385. S2CID 133166493.
  3. ^ Marsh, O. (1881). "Theropoda; YPM VP 058267; North America; USA; Wyoming; Carbon County". collections.peabody.yale.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  4. ^ Carpenter K, Galton PM (2001). "Othniel Charles Marsh and the Myth of the Eight-Spiked Stegosaurus". In Carpenter K (ed.). The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. pp. 76–102. ISBN 978-0-253-33964-5.
  5. ^ Marsh, O. C. (1879). "Notice of new Jurassic reptiles" (PDF). American Journal of Science. 3 (18): 501–505. Bibcode:1879AmJS...18..501M. doi:10.2475/ajs.s3-18.108.501. S2CID 131001110.
  6. ^ Mortimer, Mickey. "Tetanurae". theropoddatabase.github.io. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  7. ^ Christiansen, E. H.; Kowallis, B. J.; Dorais, M. J.; Hart, G. L.; Mills, C. N.; Pickard, M.; Parks, E. (2015). "The record of volcanism in the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation: Implications for the Late Jurassic of western North America". Special Paper of the Geological Society of America. 513: 1–XXX – via ResearchGate.
  8. ^ Trujillo, Kelli; Kowallis, Bart (2015-01-20). "Recalibrated legacy 40Ar/39Ar ages for the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Western Interior, U.S.A.". Geology of the Intermountain West. 2: 1–8. doi:10.31711/giw.v2.pp1-8 (inactive 3 June 2025). ISSN 2380-7601.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2025 (link)
  9. ^ Foster, J. (2007). Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. pp. 327–329. ISBN 978-0-253-34870-8
  10. ^ Russell, Dale A. (1989). An Odyssey in Time: Dinosaurs of North America. Minocqua, Wisconsin: NorthWord Press. pp. 64–70. ISBN 978-1-55971-038-1.
  11. ^ Chure, Daniel J.; Litwin, Ron; Hasiotis, Stephen T.; Evanoff, Emmett; Carpenter, Kenneth (2006). "The fauna and flora of the Morrison Formation: 2006". In Foster, John R.; Lucas, Spencer G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 233–248.
  12. ^ McLain, M. A.; Bakker, R. T. (2018-01-01), Hone, D.W. E.; Witton, M. P.; Martill, D. M. (eds.), "Pterosaur material from the uppermost Jurassic of the uppermost Morrison Formation, Breakfast Bench Facies, Como Bluff, Wyoming, including a pterosaur with pneumatized femora", New Perspectives on Pterosaur Palaeobiology, vol. 455, Geological Society of London, p. 0, ISBN 978-1-78620-317-5, retrieved 2025-05-26
  13. ^ Carpenter, Kenneth (2006). "Biggest of the big: a critical re-evaluation of the mega-sauropod Amphicoelias fragillimus". In Foster, John R.; Lucas, Spencer G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. pp. 131–138.
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