Meaning
Milner’s River Hunter
Length
up to 4 metres (12 feet)
Classification
Theropoda Marsh, 1881.
Tetanurae Gauthier, 1986.
Spinosauridae Stromer, 1915.
Baryonychinae Charig and Milner, 1986, sensu Sereno et al., 1998.
Ceratosuchopsini Barker et al 2021
Riparovenator milnerae Barker et al 2021
Locations
Riparovenator material was collected at beach level from an exposure of the Wessex Formation located just east of Chilton Chine.
Riparovenator was a theropod dinosaur, and is assumed to have been a fish eater, waiting on riverbanks, resting on its forelimbs until a large fish such as Scheenstia.
It walked on two legs.
Baryonychine distinguished by the presence of the following unique traits: notched dorsal orbital margin between prefrontal and postorbital process of the frontal; deeply inset facial nerve (CN VII) foramen that is largely obscured from lateral view; deep subcondylar recess (depth over 1/3 of its mediolateral width; depth less than 1/5 in other baryonychines); reduced exposure of ventral surface of the basipterygoid processes in lateral view.
This taxon can be further separated from other baryonychines by the following combination of traits: curved dorsal margin of the frontal process of the nasal in lateral view (margin effectively straight in Baryonyx); straight dorsal margin of the dorsum sellae (V-shaped in Baryonyx and Ceratosuchops); exoccipital components of the occipital condyle closely spaced (as in Ceratosuchops and cf. Suchomimus but not Baryonyx); mediolaterally thick crests bordering the subcondylar recess (as in Baryonyx but not Ceratosuchops or cf. Suchomimus); lateral margins of the basipterygoid processes concave in ventral view.