Pronunciation: pan-DOH-ruh-VEN-uh-tuh
Meaning: Pandora hunter
Author/s: Rauhut and Pol (2017)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Chubut, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #938
Pandoravenator fernandezorum
(Fernandez' Pandora Hunter)Etymology
Pandoravenator is derived from "Pandora" (for the locality of Caja de Pandora, which means "Pandora's box" in Spanish) and the Latin "venator" (hunter).
The species epithet, fernandezorum, honours the Fernandez family, including Daniel, the late Victoriano and his daughters and
sons (especially Abel), who helped during explorations of their land by the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio for more than twenty years.
Discovery
The remains of Pandoravenator were discovered in the Cañadón Calcáreo Formation, in a six to eight square meter area of a gully at Caja de Pandora on the western banks of the Río Chubut, some 12 km north of the village
of Cerro Cóndor, Chubut Province, Argentina, by an Oliver Rauhut-led fieldwork team of the Museo Paleontológico
Egidio Feruglio in 2002 and January 2009, and by Diego Pol in 2017.
The holotype (MPEF PV 1773-3—18, 27—28) is a mostly complete right leg, ankle and foot, a partial left shin, and some left foot bones.
Referred material from the same quarry includes six partial tail vertebrae and two chevrons (MPEF PV 1773-19—21), a very fragmentary shoulder girdle (MPEF PV 1773-2), a piece of left upper arm (MPEF PV 1773-1), a partial left shin and ankle (MPEF PV 1773-36 a, b), and toe bone fragments (MPEF PV 1773-37).
