Open Paleo

Asfaltovenator

Rauhut & Pol, 2019 as-FAHL-toh-ven-AY-tor

From the Cañadón Asfalto Formation (the fossil formation where remains were found, named for asphalt deposits) + Latin venator meaning 'hunter'; overall meaning 'Cañadón Asfalto Formation hunter'.

184.2–168.2 million years ago Toarcian–Bajocian, Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic
Early Jurassic and Middle Jurassic stages

Asfaltovenator is a genus of possibly allosauroid dinosaur from the Early to Middle Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Chubut Province, Argentina. The type and only species is Asfaltovenator vialidadi.

Under dispute

The phylogenetic position of Asfaltovenator vialidadi is unstable. Its describers recovered it as a basal allosauroid and noted that its mosaic of megalosauroid and allosauroid characters destabilizes tetanuran topology (Rauhut and Pol, 2019), a position Kellermann and colleagues (2025) also recover in their unweighted analyses. Other analyses instead place it within Allosauridae as the sister taxon of Allosaurus (Rauhut and colleagues, 2024; Kellermann and colleagues, 2025). It is placed conservatively at Allosauroidea incertae sedis.

Diagnosis

  1. Premaxillary teeth with well-developed distal but only minute mesial serrations
  2. Exoccipital with pronounced horizontal ridges between paroccipital processes and foramen magnum
  3. Neural spines of cervical vertebrae three and four triangular and backswept
  4. Dorsals 11 and 12 with small additional anterior centrodiapophyseal lamina
  5. Articulated metacarpus broader than long
  6. Manual digit III significantly more slender and shorter than digits I and II

Species

Asfaltovenator vialidadi Rauhut & Pol, 2019

Type species

Named for the Dirección Nacional de Vialidad (Argentina's national road authority), which assisted the Museo Paleontológico 'Egidio Feruglio' in recovering the fossil.

Holotype
MPEF PV 3440 , Museo Paleontológico "Egidio Feruglio"
Material
Almost complete skull and partial skeleton
Horizon
Cañadón Asfalto Formation, Toarcian–Bajocian, Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic , 184.2–168.2 million years ago
Locality
1.6 km northeast of Cerro Cóndor, Chubut, Argentina

References

  1. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Pol, D. (2019). Probable basal allosauroid from the early Middle Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina highlights phylogenetic uncertainty in tetanuran theropod dinosaurs. Scientific Reports 9(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53672-7

    Gives the type locality as lacustrine layers of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, late Toarcian to Bajocian, citing the basin geochronology rather than a horizon found for this taxon.

    rauhut2019a
  2. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the mass estimate, and the appearance features.

    paul2024a
  3. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Bakirov, A. A.; Wings, O.; Fernandes, A. E.; Hübner, T. R. (2024). A new theropod dinosaur from the Callovian Balabansai Formation of Kyrgyzstan. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201(4). Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae090

    Recovered Asfaltovenator within Allosauridae as sister taxon to Allosaurus.

    rauhut2024a
  4. Kellermann, M.; Cuesta, E.; Rauhut, O. W. M. (2025). Re-evaluation of the Bahariya Formation carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny. PLOS ONE 20(1): e0311096. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0311096

    Re-evaluation of a carcharodontosaurid supporting an Allosauridae placement for Asfaltovenator.

    kellermann2025a
  5. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Asfaltovenator as a basal allosauroid.

    jones2026c