#spectrovenator

Return of Ghost Hunter

Spectro

Water

Close-Range

Small

HP: Low

Atk: High

Def: Very Low

Acc: Above Average

Spd: High

Support: Enemy -Atk 4%, -Def 4%, -Acc 44%

With aim-debilitating support effects, FP Plus, and a multitude of scare-inducing skills, Spectro is not a Vivosaur to be trifled with, despite its frailty.

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Spectrovenator

8 feet

Mesozoic Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Location: Brazil

This dinosaur had small arms and a weak bite.

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Spectrovenator is, as one might expect, patterned after a ghost. Specifically, it has a 'waterlogged ghost' look about it. It has patterns across its back that resemble rotten cloth, and otherwise it has a splotchy mix of dark blue-greens and browns. Its eyes are sunken in, allowing only an ominous red light to emit from the sockets. It also has a very small ridge running across its back. It shares similar animations to Delta.

(Note: I am not a professional paleontologist or even biologist. I am just and amateur paleoartist and enthusiast. If my infos are off in some way, feel free to correct them ^^)

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DINOCEMBER

10 - Spectrovenator ragei (from Latin "ghost hunter") - Early Cretaceous (125-113 Ma BCE) - Quiricó Formation, Minas Gerais, Brazil Formally described in 2020 by Rafael Delcourt's team, the Spectrovenator is one of the most significant findings within its group, with the fossils found belonging to a probably immature individual, preserving much of the posterior region of the skeleton, including limbs and the pelvic girdle, but also a basically complete skull, the first belonging to an abelisaur of the Early Cretaceous, showing characteristics of transition between more primitive forms and the more well-known abelisaurs, such as Carnotaurus and Majungasaurus. The name of this animal comes from the fact that the fossil was excavated under another, a Tapuiasaurus, probably indicating that it died crushed by the great size of the sauropod, by accident or even during a hunt. Abelisaurs are a group of theropods native to Gondwana - the southern continents during the Mesozoic - whose more advanced forms of the Late Cretaceous showed animals specialized in running, with long legs and muscular tails, using their short skulls to take accurate bites or even swallow animals, if small enough, whole. Despite this, the Spectrovenator does not have such characteristics, having shorter legs and a more rectangular skull, being more generalized and less specialized for a specific niche, as is common in transition species. Part of the Areado group, the Quiricó Formation appears to represent a region of a large seasonal lake in the middle of a semi-arid environment, where Tapuiasaurus and Spectrovenator appear to be the main non-Avian dinosaurs, along with fish, turtles and lizards.

(This is posting several days late here because tumblr didn’t put in my queue properly. And also a little late for Halloween, but since this October saw the description of a new dinosaur species with a particularly spooky name, I couldn't resist putting it into the schedule anyway.)

Spectrovenator ragei was an early member of the abelisaurid lineage, living in southeastern Brazil during the Early Cretaceous, about 120 million years ago. It was one of the smallest known abelisaurids, measuring just 2m long (6'6"), and lacked a lot of the skull specializations seen in larger-bodied Late Cretaceous forms like Carnotaurus, suggesting it was more of a generalist predator.

Its genus name translates to "ghost hunter" due to it being found underneath the fossil remains of another dinosaur entirely – a "ghost" unexpectedly appearing when the specimen was being prepared – but it's extra appropriate since it also helps to fill in a rather sizeable ghost lineage in the fossil record of abelisaurids.

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