Episode 62 is all about Fosterovenator, a rare juvenile theropod from the Morrison Formation.

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In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Fosterovenator
• Name means “Foster’s hunter”
• Lived in the Late Jurassic in the Morrison Formation of what is now Wyoming
• Charles Marsh and Arthur Lakes collected the bones in 1879, among crocodile teeth, turtle shells, a juvenile Allosaurus and Torvosaurus
• Fosterovenator churei (only species); named in 2014
• Name Fosterovenator is a combination of John R. Foster (a tribute to the American paleontologist) and Venator which means “hunter”
• Named after John Foster to recognize “his contributions to the study of the vertebrate fauna of the Morrison Formation”, according to the paper “New data on small theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Como Bluff, Wyoming, USA”
• Churei comes from Daniel J. Churemu (American paleontologist)
• Holotype was found at Como Bluff in Wyoming (Reed’s Quarry)
• Holotype includes a tibia and ankle bones fused together
• Holotype is probably a juvenile, which makes it harder to determine how the dinosaur looked (probably looked different as an adult)
• The end of the tibia resembles the right tibia of a small theropod found in the Morrison Formation, originally thought to be Elaphrosaurus (named by Chure in 2001), but in 2008 Carrano and Sampson said it may more resemble Tendaguru than Elaphrosaurus. But there needs to be more complete specimens to know for sure
• Fosterovenator is similar in shape to Elaphrosaurus
• Also similar to Tendaguru
• Too fragmentary to know exactly how large Fosterovenator was
• A second specimen has a right fibula of a larger individual (fibula is 10.8 in or 27.5 cm long)
• Fosterovenator shows there may have been more diversity of smaller theropods (which lived among Allosaurus, Torvosaurus, Ceratosaurus)
• Fossils of small and juvenile theropods are rare in the Morrison Formation (probably eaten)
• Probably hunted small prey, but may have scavenged on larger animals, such as sauropods
• Fosterovenator is a ceratosaurid, but more closely related to Elaphrosaurus than to Ceratosaurus
• Ceratosauridae is a family of theropods
• Type genus is Ceratosaurus
• Lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous
• They lived in North America, Tanzania, Portugal
• Charles Marsh named the family Ceratosauridae for the type species (1884)
• Two types of teeth: one with longitudinal ridges and one with smooth enamel
• Probably competed with allosaurs for food (the North American ones)
• Fun fact: A T. rex footprint is about 1.55 feet (46 cm) long. But its feet were much longer, about 3.3 feet (1 m) long, because T. rex, like other dinosaurs, walked on its toes.