What is Neovenatoridae?

The most inclusive clade comprising Neovenator salerii but not Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, Allosaurus fragilis or Sinraptor dongi. Neovenatoridae is a family of carnivorous theropods who dwell within Allosauroidea, but compared to other allosauroids their shoulder blades are short and wide, and their upper hip bones (ilia) are riddled with many cavities. Upon description this group neatly tied together a rag-tag bunch of previously problematic cosmopolitan critters, most of which were megaraptorans; a neovenatorid sub-family of gracile and long armed forms who "proved" that the tyrannoauroid line weren't the only large-bodied carnivorous dinosaurs to live into the latest Cretaceous. However, this theory was cast into doubt in 2013 by Novas who found that megaraptorans are tyrannosauroids, and if future studies bear this out then Neovenator and Chilantaisaurus will be the only confirmed members of Neovenatoridae.

Click here to search Dinochecker for neovenatorids. Neovenatoridae is derived from the Greek "Neos" (new), the Latin "venator" (hunter) and the Greek "idae" (denoting a family). Although its members are not actually "new" the clade itself is, being named in 2009.