Saltriovenator

hunter from Saltrio

• Saltrio · Italian (place name) · Saltrio, the town and formation in Lombardy, Italy
• venator · Latin · hunter

The name combines Saltrio, the Italian town near where the fossil was found (and the Saltrio Formation, the rock unit it came from), with the Latin word for "hunter". It means "hunter from Saltrio", marking it as a predatory theropod from that locality. The species name, zanellai, honours Angelo Zanella, the amateur collector who found the fossil.

Named by

Dal Sasso et al.

Year named

2018

Period

Early Jurassic

Stage

Sinemurian

Found in

Saltrio Formation, Lombardy, northern Italy

Type species is Saltriovenator zanellai. It is an early ceratosaurian theropod and one of the largest known predatory dinosaurs of the Early Jurassic. It is also the oldest known ceratosaur, and the first Italian dinosaur from this time interval.