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.
