Archaeovenator hamiltonensis

Archaeovenator is an extinct genus of Late Carboniferous varanopid synapsids known from Greenwood County, Kansas of the United States. It was first named by Robert R. Reisz and David W. Dilkes in 2003 and the type species is Archaeovenator hamiltonensis. Archaeovenator hamiltonensis is known from the holotype KUVP 12483, a three-dimensionally preserved, nearly complete and articulated skeleton, including the skull, with limbs and girdles slightly separated from postcranial skeleton. It was collected in the Hamilton Quarry, from the Calhouns Shale Formation of the Shawnee Group, dating to the Virgilian stage of the Late Pennsylvanian Series, about 300 million years ago. The generic name is derived from the Latin Archaeo and venator, meaning "ancient hunter". The specific name is named after its finding place Hamilton Quarry. Archaeovenator is one of the oldest known varanopid, though Dendromaia is known from older rocks.

Archaeovenator hamiltonensis

Neil Pezzoni · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ArchaeovenatorPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 4.8 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 303.7 Mya and 298.9 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 1 of 1 occurrenceCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 1 occurrence304–304 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences304–303 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303–303 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303–303 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303–303 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303–303 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences303–302 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences302–302 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences302–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–301 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences301–300 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences300–300 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences300–299 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences299–299 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences299–299 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences299–299 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences304.2 Mya298.4 Mya

1 occurrence of Archaeovenator hamiltonensis on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

1 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Calhoun Shale — 37.99°N, 96.11°W

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The named rock units Archaeovenator hamiltonensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Archaeovenator hamiltonensis and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Archaeovenator hamiltonensis and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

4 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Archaeovenator hamiltonensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Archaeovenator hamiltonensis

Credit
Neil Pezzoni
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Archaeovenator hamiltonensis was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itArchaeovenator through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Reisz and Dilkes 2003