Riparovenator
Temporal range: Barremian,
Holotype skull fragments
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Spinosauridae
Clade: †Ceratosuchopsini
Genus: †Riparovenator
Barker et al., 2021
Type species
†Riparovenator milnerae
Barker et al., 2021

Riparovenator ("riverbank hunter") is a genus of baryonychine spinosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) period of Britain, the type species is Riparovenator milnerae.

Discovery and naming

Diagram by Dan Folkes showing known material of Riparovenator (front) and Ceratosuchops (rear)

Between 2013 and 2017, spinosaurid fossils were uncovered at the beach near the Chilton Chine before being brought to Dinosaur Isle. Such remains had been generally referred to Baryonyx but were understood recently to represent two species new to science.

In 2021, the type species Riparovenator milnerae was named and described by a team of palaeontologists including Chris T. Barker, David William Elliot Hone, Darren Naish, Andrea Cau, Jeremy A.F. Lockwood, Brian Foster, Claire E. Clarkin, Philipp Schneider and Neil John Gostling. The generic name is derived from the Latin rīpārius, "of the river bank", and vēnātor, "hunter". The specific name honors Angela Milner, deceased in August 2021.

The holotype remains of this taxon consist of IWCMS 2014.95.6 (premaxillary bodies), IWCMS 2014.96.1, 2; 2020.448.1, 2 (a disarticulated braincase) and IWCMS 2014.96.3 (a partial lacrimal and prefrontal), all of which were recovered from rocks in the Chilton Chine of the Wessex Formation. Referred remains include a posterior nasal fragment (IWCMS 2014.95.7) and an extensive caudal axial series of twenty-two vertebrae (IWCMS 2020.447.1-39), representing around fifty individual bones in total.

Description

Life restoration

Riparovenator is estimated to have measured about 8.5 metres (28 feet) in length based on the skeletal reconstruction in the describing paper by Dan Folkes.[1]

Classification

In 2021, Riparovenator was, within Spinosauridae, placed into the Baryonychinae. The authors in a cladistic analysis recovered Riparovenator as a member of the newly erected clade, Ceratosuchopsini, closely related to Suchomimus and the coeval Ceratosuchops, its sister species.[1][2]

Baryonychinae

ML1190 (Iberospinus)

Baryonyx

Ceratosuchopsini

Suchomimus

Riparovenator

Ceratosuchops

Palaeoecology

Referred caudal fragments

Riparovenator lived in a dry Mediterranean habitat in the Wessex Formation, where rivers were home to riparian galleries.[3][4] Like most spinosaurids, it would have fed on aquatic prey as well as other terrestrial prey in these areas.[5][6][7]

Other dinosaurs from the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight the theropods Ceratosuchops, Neovenator, Eotyrannus, Aristosuchus, Thecocoelurus, Calamospondylus, and Ornithodesmus; the ornithopods Iguanodon, Hypsilophodon, and Valdosaurus; the sauropods Ornithopsis, Eucamerotus, and Chondrosteosaurus; and the ankylosaur Polacanthus.[8][1] Barker and colleagues stated in 2021 that the identification of the two additional spinosaurids from the Wealden Supergroup, Riparovenator and Ceratosuchops, has implications for potential ecological separation within Spinosauridae if these and Baryonyx were contemporary and interacted. They cautioned that it is possible the Upper Weald Clay and Wessex Formations and the spinosaurids known from them were separated in time and distance.[1]

It is generally thought that large predators occur with small taxonomic diversity in any area due to ecological demands, yet many Mesozoic assemblages include two or more sympatric theropods that were comparable in size and morphology, and this also appears to have been the case for spinosaurids. Barker and colleagues suggested that high diversity within Spinosauridae in a given area may have been the result of environmental circumstances benefiting their niche. While it has been generally assumed that only identifiable anatomical traits related to resource partitioning allowed for coexistence of large theropods, Barker and colleagues noted that this does not preclude that similar and closely related taxa could coexist and overlap in ecological requirements. Possible niche partitioning could be in time (seasonal or daily), in space (between habitats in the same ecosystems), or depending on conditions, and they could also have been separated by their choice of habitat within their regions (which may have ranged in climate).[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Barker, C.T.; Hone, D.; Naish, D.; Cau, A.; Lockwood, J.; Foster, B.; Clarkin, C.; Schneider, P.; Gostling, N. (2021). "New spinosaurids from the Wessex Formation (Early Cretaceous, UK) and the European origins of Spinosauridae". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 19340. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97870-8. PMC 8481559. PMID 34588472.
  2. ↑ Naish, Darren (29 September 2021). "Two New Spinosaurid Dinosaurs from the English Cretaceous". Tetrapod Zoology.
  3. ↑ Penn, Simon J.; Sweetman, Steven C.; Martill, David M.; Coram, Robert A. (November 2020). "The Wessex Formation (Wealden Group, Lower Cretaceous) of Swanage Bay, southern England". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 131 (6): 679–698. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2020.07.005. S2CID 228820795.
  4. ↑ Radley, Jonathan D.; Allen, Percival (April 2012). "The southern English Wealden (non-marine Lower Cretaceous): overview of palaeoenvironments and palaeoecology". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 123 (2): 382–385. doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2011.12.005. ISSN 0016-7878.
  5. ↑ Hendrickx, C.; Mateus, O.; Buffetaut, E. (2016). "Morphofunctional Analysis of the Quadrate of Spinosauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and the Presence of Spinosaurus and a Second Spinosaurine Taxon in the Cenomanian of North Africa". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0144695. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1144695H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144695. PMC 4703214. PMID 26734729.
  6. ↑ "'Hell heron' dinosaur is new species found on Isle of Wight".
  7. ↑ "'Horned crocodile-faced hell heron' is one of two new Isle of Wight dinosaur discoveries". 29 September 2021.
  8. ↑ Martill, D. M.; Hutt, S. (1996). "Possible baryonychid dinosaur teeth from the Wessex Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, England". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 107 (2): 81–84. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(96)80001-0.
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