Liaoningvenator
Liaoningvenator (meaning "Liaoning hunter") is a genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China. It contains a single species, L. curriei, named after paleontologist Phillip J. Currie in 2017 by Shen Cai-Zhi and colleagues from an articulated, nearly complete skeleton, one of the most complete troodontid specimens known. Shen and colleagues found indicative traits that placed Liaoningvenator within the Troodontidae. These traits included its numerous, small, and closely packed teeth, as well as the vertebrae towards the end of its tail having shallow grooves in place of neural spines on their top surfaces.
| Liaoningvenator Temporal range: Barremian, | |
|---|---|
| Life reconstruction with hand for scale | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Troodontidae |
| Genus: | †Liaoningvenator Shen et al., 2017 |
| Type species | |
| †Liaoningvenator curriei Shen et al., 2017 | |
Within the Troodontidae, the closest relative of Liaoningvenator was Eosinopteryx, and it was also closely related to Anchiornis and Xiaotingia; while these have traditionally been placed outside the Troodontidae, the phylogenetic analysis conducted by Shen and colleagues offered evidence supporting the alternative identification of these paravians as troodontids. Compared to its close relatives, however, Liaoningvenator had relatively long legs, in particular the femora. As the fifth troodontid known from geographically and temporally comparable strata, Liaoningvenator increases the diversity of Chinese troodontids.