#asfaltovenator

[darknymfa-art]

Mayozoic day 21, Asfaltovenator vialidadi. In retrospect maybe I should've put the mouth on there to really sell the theropod look. Just felt the angle was wrong for it.

[ildarotyrannus]

Portrait of tetanuran Asfaltovenator vialidadi from the Lower Jurassic of Argentina. The holotype of this theropod was discovered in 2002 in the sediments of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation and extracted in 2007. The specimen is represented by a skull with a lower jaw and a partial postcranium. The Asfaltovenator is characterized by a mixture of features of early theropods and more progressive tetanurans. It was originally classified as a basal allosauroid, but in 2024, Andrea Cau placed it next to Sciurumimus in the megalosauroids. At the same time, according to the results of other analyses, the closest relative of the Asfaltovenator was the later Allosaurus. Asfaltovenator was a large animal about 8-9 meters long. It co-existed with a number of other theropods, including Piatnitzkysaurus and ceratosaur Eoabelisaurus.

Adobe Photoshop, 2025.

[dinoesculturas]

ASFALTOVENATOR VIALIDADI

CAZADOR DEL CAÑADON ASFALTO EN HONOR A VIALIDAD NACIONAL

Asfaltovenator era un animal bastante grande, con un cráneo de 75 a 80 centímetros de largo y la longitud total del cuerpo se estimaba en siete a ocho metros.

Debido a la mezcla de características primitivas y derivadas su inclusión en los grupos de los terópodos es complicada.

Se llegó a la conclusión que es un alosauroide muy primitivo o basal y que los megalosauroides y los alosauroides compartían un ancestro común.

Dichos grupos dieron origen a familias muy diversas más adelante. Dentro de los alosauroides se encuentran Allosaurus y mucho más tarde Giganotosaurus. Dentro de los megalosauroides se hallan Megalosaurus y hacia el Cretácico tardío, Spinosaurus.

Asfaltovenator fue el prototipo de dichos grupos y fue un carnívoro temible por su contextura robusta y ágil.

HABITÓ: Formación Candeleros (Neuquén)

HACE: 182 a 172 millones de años (Jurásico)

ES UN: Terópodo, Allosauroideo

MEDÍA: 7,5 m de largo

PESABA: N/D

COMÍA: Carnívoro

[alphynix]

It Came From The Wastebasket #07: Carnosaur Carnage

Carnosauria was originally named in the 1920s as a grouping for all of the large-bodied theropod dinosaurs known at the time.

For much of the 20th century it was used as a general wastebasket taxon collecting together all big carnivorous forms – including allosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, megalosaurids, spinosaurids, ceratosaurids, abelisauroids, and tyrannosaurids – and for a while it even included a species that later turned out to be closer related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.

From left to right: Asfaltovenator vialidadi, Torvosaurus tanneri, Giganotosaurus carolinii, & Baryonyx walkeri

But then cladistic analysis in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that some of these theropods weren't actually closely related at all. Carnosaurs weren't a natural lineage but instead were highly polyphyletic, with the physical similarities between them seeming to be more due to convergent evolution than direct shared ancestry.

Some carnosaurs were split off and reclassified as more "primitive" types of theropod, while the tyrannosaurs were placed much closer to birds with the coelurosaurs. The remaining "carnosaurs" were just the allosaurids, carcharodontosaurs, and their closest relatives, and some paleontologists now prefer to use the name Allosauroidea for this group to distance it from the previous wastebasket mess.

…But Carnosauria might not be done just yet.

The discovery of Asfaltovenator in 2019 complicated matters once again, with a mixture of anatomical features linking it to both the allosauroids and the megalosauroids (megalosaurids, spinosaurids, and their relatives) – suggesting that these two groups might actually have been closely related to each other in a single lineage after all.

This would potentially return Carnosauria back to something surprisingly close to its original definition, with the various megalosauroids now forming an evolutionary grade leading to the allosauroids.

———

Nix Illustration | Tumblr | Twitter | Patreon

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round Two: Asfaltovenator vs Maip

Asfaltovenator vialidadi

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @raptorcivilization

Name meaning: Hunter of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, thanks to the Vialidad Nacional 

Time: 179 to 178 million years ago (Toarcian stage of the Early Jurassic)

Location: Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Argentina

On the surface Asfaltovenator might look like just a generic carnosaur. Which it kinda is - being at around the base of Carnosauria. But it’s a pretty good basal carnosaur. It’s known from a single individual, but the entire front half of the body was recovered - complete head, neck, arms, and torso. Which is pretty cool. What’s even more interesting is that it displays a blend of anatomical features that had previously been considered unique to different tetanuran lineages (megalosauroids, carnosaurs, and coelurosaurs). Because of this, in the the phylogenetic analysis from its description, it dragged megalosauroids back into Carnosauria. First time that happened in a couple decades, which is neat. It even kinda looks like a retro carnosaur, in my opinion at least. At an estimated 25 feet long, while not huge, it was one of the largest predatory dinosaurs on the planet at the time. It lived alongside other early members of diverse Jurassic-Cretaceous dinosaur groups, including Eoabelisaurus, Bagualia, and Volkheimeria, as well as several mammals, a rhynchocephalian, the hallopodid crocodylomorph Almadasuchus, turtles, frogs, and the pterosaur Allkaruen.

Maip macrothorax

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Long-chested Shadow of Death 

Time: 72 to 66 million years ago (Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous) 

Location: Chorrillo Formation, Patagonia, Argentina 

Megaraptors, a group not even really understood a few decades ago, just keep having more and more interesting members added to this group - Maip, a recent addition known from many bones of the trunk and tail, help fill out more of this picture with remains not known from other Megaraptors, and als having the most complete Megaraptor skeleton known. Maip was also interesting in having a very long, thick torso, leading to its specific name. It probably reached 9 to 10 meters in length in life, making it the largest Megaraptor known (literally reaching carcharodontosaurid size), and it may indicate that megaraptors rose to high-level predator status as other top predators went extinct in the region. It had a respiratory system similar to modern birds, with unidirectional air flow, much like other Saurischian dinosaurs. Living in southernmost South America, Maip would have had to deal with a variety of harsh climates, and may have been covered in feathers in order to keep warm. In addition to mosasaurs, snakes, turtles, mammals, fish, and frogs, Maip lived with other dinosaurs such as Nullotitan, Kookne, Yatenavis, and Isasicursor. 

Asfaltovenator or Maip?

Asfaltovenator

Maip

Voting ended onMar 16, 2023

[carriondoddles]

Asfaltovenator

[si-nequal-is]

Asfaltovenator

Astolfovenator

Know the difference.

[actual-haise]

Ringing in the new year with some new paleoart of a newly discovered (well, December 2019) species: The basal allosauroid Asfaltovenator! It might seem like a standard theropod, but it's basal position may really shake up phylogeny.