Concavenator corcovatus was a medium-sized meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Spain during the Early Cretaceous Period. It is famous for the tall pair of vertebrae near its hips that formed a raised back hump or crest. This unusual feature makes Concavenator important because it helps paleontologists study how theropod bodies varied beyond the famous shapes seen in large predators like Tyrannosaurus.
Its fossil also preserves rare details that connect dinosaur anatomy, movement, and possible display structures.
Key Facts
- Name: Concavenator corcovatus means Cuenca hunter from the curved back.
- Time period: Early Cretaceous, about 130 million years ago.
- Location: Las Hoyas fossil site, Cuenca Province, Spain.
- Estimated length: about 6 m from snout to tail.
- Concavenator was a theropod, meaning it walked on two legs and was mainly carnivorous.
- Speed estimate formula: speed = distance / time, useful for comparing trackway evidence when available.
Vocabulary
- Theropod
- A group of mostly meat-eating dinosaurs that walked on two legs and includes birds and their closest dinosaur relatives.
- Vertebra
- One of the bones in the backbone that helps support the body and protect the spinal cord.
- Fossil
- The preserved remains, impression, or trace of an organism from the past.
- Cretaceous
- A geologic period from about 145 million to 66 million years ago when many dinosaurs lived.
- Paleontology
- The scientific study of ancient life using fossils and rock evidence.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Calling the back structure a sail without evidence is wrong because Concavenator had a short raised hump from tall vertebrae, not a long Spinosaurus-like sail.
- Assuming every theropod looked like Tyrannosaurus is wrong because theropods varied greatly in size, skull shape, arms, feathers, and body structures.
- Treating a fossil reconstruction as a photograph is wrong because missing soft tissues, colors, and some body details must be inferred from anatomy and comparison.
- Saying Concavenator lived with humans is wrong because it lived about 130 million years ago, long before humans evolved.
Practice Questions
- 1 Concavenator was about 6 m long. If a drawing shows it as 12 cm long, what scale is being used in meters per centimeter?
- 2 Concavenator lived about 130 million years ago, and the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago. How many million years before that extinction did Concavenator live?
- 3 A fossil shows tall vertebrae near the hips of Concavenator. Explain two possible functions of this hump and describe what evidence would help scientists test those ideas.