Description

Full Body Reconstruction *Due to privacy concerns, we are unable to post images of the completed full body.

Concavenator is a medium-sized dinosaur, characterized by two extremely high vertebrae in front of the hips.

They formed a high crest, possibly supporting a muscular hump, on the dinosaur’s back. Another peculiarity is that the skeleton has a series of small protuberances on the ulnae. The discoverers of this dinosaur hypothesize that these protuberances are homologous to the protuberances present on the ulnae of some modern birds.

These protuberances serve as anchoring areas for the roots of the flight feathers or remiges on the arm by means of follicular ligaments.

Why does our reconstruction have protofeathers? Certainly the covering of the body is not known, except for some scales located on the legs that resemble the legs of a modern bird (whether homologous or not to these). The holotype fossil and only specimen also preserves quadrangular scales under the tail. Does this mean that it was completely covered in scales? No, scales and protofeathers can coexist in the same individual, as is observed, for example, in species of dinosaurs as distantly related to each other as Juravenator or Kulindadromeus. We found protofeathers even in pterosaurs, suggesting that the protofeather cover was already present in common ancestors of pterosaurs and dinosaurs. It is true that protofeathers can be lost even though they are an ancestral character, as occurs in abelisaurids, therefore, the protofeather cover and the bare/scaly cover are currently plausible.

In our reconstruction, we have chosen a disruptive camouflage, which would have made it difficult for its prey to recognize the silhouette of Concavenator.

This coloration is speculative, since its external appearance is unknown.

Bibliography: Ortega, Francisco; Escaso, Fernando; Sanz, José L. (2010). «A bizarre, humped Carcharodontosauria (Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain».Cuesta, E., Ortega, F., Sanz, J. (2015). Ulnar bumps of Concavenator: Quill Knobs or Muscular scar? Myological Reconstruction of the forelimb of Concavenator corcovatusElena Cuesta , Daniel Vidal , Francisco Ortega , José L. Sanz (2018) cranial osteology of Concavenator corcovatus (Theropoda; Carcharodontosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain E Cuesta, F Ortega, JL Sanz Appendicular osteology of Concavenator corcovatus (Theropoda: Carcharodontosauridae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain E Cuesta, F Ortega, JL Sanz Concavenator corcovatus (Lower Cretaceous, Cuenca) under UV-light: Highlighting bones and skin impressions E Cuesta Fidalgo Concavenator corcovatus:(Theropoda, Dinosauria) from Las Hoyas fossil site (Early Cretaceous, Cuenca, Spain): taphonomic, phylogenetic and morphofunctional analyses