Pronunciation: loo-chee-AH-no-VEN-uh-tuh
Meaning: Luciano hunter
Author/s: Martínez and Apaldetti (2017)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: San Juan, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #953
Lucianovenator bonoi
When this critter was initially published in the abstract of a paywalled online journal in 2017, Martínez and Apaldetti called it Lucianosaurus, and those in the know were, like, "What?". Such a reaction was understandable, because Hunt and Lucas had already used Lucianosaurus in 1994 for a purported ornithischian dinosaur that Irmis et al. assigned to Archosauromorpha in 2006. So, the abstract was taken down while the pre-occupied name was scrubbed and replaced with Lucianovenator. Then it was uploaded again, and everyone involved pretended it had never happened.
(Luciano and Bono's hunter)Etymology
Lucianovenator is derived from "Luciano" (for Don Luciano Leyes, who reported the presence of fossils — found on his land by his brother, Benito — in 2001) and the Latin "venator" (hunter).
The species epithet, bonoi, honours Tulio Abel del Bono, former director of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan (UNSJ) and current secretary of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, who pulled some strings to fund the excavation and research.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C1CB2BA3-AA66-449F-8D71-EC0F50592467.
Discovery
The remains of Lucianovenator bonoi were discovered at "Quebrada del puma" in the Quebrada del Barro Formation of the Marayes-El Carrizal Basin, Balde de Leyes Village, Caucete Department, San Juan Province, Argentina, by Benito Leyes in the mid-1980s.The holotype (PVSJ 906) is a series of vertebrae (third of the neck to fourth of the back), a sacrum (a block of fused hip vertebrae) attached to the first back vertebra at one end and the first tail vertebra at the other, and a partial pelvis. Referred material includes PVSJ 899 (a partial sacrum and pelvis, and the first tail vertebra), PVSJ 1013 (a partial sacrum), PVSJ 1084 (another sacrum and partial pelvis), and possibly PVSJ 1004 (a partial shin).
Preparators
D. Abelín, R. Gordillo, and C. Diaz.
