Neovenatoridae

Neovenatorids Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Possible Late Cretaceous record
Restoration of Neovenator salerii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	†Carcharodontosauria
Family:	†Neovenatoridae Benson, Carrano & Brusatte, 2010
Type species
†Neovenator salerii Hutt, Martill, & Barker, 1996
Subgroups
†Chilantaisaurus? †Gualicho †Neovenator †Megaraptora?

Neovenatoridae is a family of large carnivorous dinosaurs representing a branch of the allosauroids, a large group of carnosaurs that also includes the sinraptorids, carcharodontosaurids, and allosaurids. Compared to other allosauroids, neovenatorids had short, wide shoulder blades, and their ilia (upper hip bones) had many cavities.

Classification

Phylogenetic studies conducted by Benson, Carrano and Brusatte (2010) and Carrano, Benson and Sampson (2012) recovered the group Megaraptora as members of the Neovenatoridae. This would make neovenatorids the latest-surviving allosauroids; at least one megaraptoran, Orkoraptor, lived near the end of the Mesozoic era, dating to the early Maastrichtian stage of the latest Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago. On the other hand, Novas et al. (2012), while confirming that Neovenator was closely related to carcharodontosaurids, simultaneously found Megaraptor and related genera to be coelurosaurs closely related to tyrannosaurids. Recent research following the discovery of Gualicho could place neovenatorids and megaraptorans as a phylogenetic grade of theropods basal to the coelurosaurs; however, this has yet to be tested by multiple analyses.