Name:

Neovenator (Greek for "new hunter"); pronounced KNEE-oh-ven-ate-or

Habitat:

Woodlands of western Europe

Historical Period:

Early Cretaceous (130-125 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 25 feet long and half a ton

Diet:

Meat

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Large size; slender build

 

About Neovenator:

For all intents and purposes, Neovenator occupied the same niche in its western European habitat as Allosaurus did in North America: a large, agile, fast and fearsome theropod that predated the much bigger tyrannosaurs of the later Cretaceous period.

Today, Neovenator is probably the best-known and most popular carnivorous dinosaur from western Europe, which (until the discovery of this genus in 1996) had to make do with historically important but frustratingly vague meat-eaters like Megalosaurus. (By the way, Neovenator was closely related to the impressively named Megaraptor of South America, which wasn't technically a true raptor but another large theropod of the Allosaurus family.)