Pronunciation: al-BURR-tuh-vuh-NAY-tuhr
Meaning: Alberta hunter
Author/s: Evans et al. (2017)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Alberta, Canada
Discovery Chart Position: #936
Albertavenator curriei
(Currie's Alberta hunter)Etymology
Albertavenator is derived from "Alberta" (the Canadian province where it was discovered) and the Latin "venator" (hunter).
The species epithet, curriei, honours Canadian palaeontologist Phillip Currie, in recognition of his many years of ground-breaking dinosaur research in Alberta. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:0B9D45D6-4369-43B9-93F7-C57087C31D75.
Discovery
The remains of Albertavenator were discovered in the Horsethief Member of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Red Deer River Valley, Alberta, Canada, in the early 1990s.
The holotype (TMP 1993.105.0001) amounts to two partial skull bones that were stored away at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, under the assumption that they belonged to Troodon formosus. However, their shape and size suggests they belong to a much shorter and more robust skull. Palaeontologists suspect a lower jawbone with teeth from the same area may belong to this species too. But even without it, Albertavenator owns the only troodontid skull material from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, and some of the most diagnostic troodontid material from the entire Maastrichtian period of North America.
