Liaoningvenator (meaning "Liaoning hunter") is a genus of troodontid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.

These traits included its numerous, small, and closely packed teeth, as well as the vertebrae towards the end of its tail having shallow grooves in place of neural spines on their top surfaces.

[2] Unlike Sauronithoides, Zanabazar, and Stenonychosaurus, the crest separating the parietal bones does not participate in the border of the supratemporal (upper) temporal fenestra at the back of the skull.

[1] Characteristic of troodontids,[2] Liaoningvenator has a pitted groove on the outer edge of its shallow and triangular lower jaw.

[1][7] Liaoningvenator is known from a single specimen, a nearly complete and well-preserved skeleton with most bones preserved in their original articulated positions.

[1] In 2017, DNHM D3012 was named as the type specimen of the new genus and species Liaoningvenator curriei by Shen Caizhi, Zhao Bo, Gao Chunling, Lü Junchang, and Martin Kundrát.

[1] Shen and colleagues identified Liaoningvenator as a member of the Troodontidae based on its numerous, closely spaced teeth that are constricted below the crown; the pneumatic opening on the rear of its quadrate; the oval shape of its foramen magnum; the replacement of neural spines by shallow midline grooves in the vertebrae towards the end of its tail; the tall ascending process on its astragalus; and its asymmetrical and subarctometatarsal (i.e. where the third metatarsal is somewhat pinched by the neighboring metatarsals) foot.

[2][8] They further placed it in the "higher troodontid clade" based on the lack of a bulbous capsule-like structure on the parasphenoid of its palate, and the presence of the promaxillary fenestra on its skull.

They are united by the teeth being flattened and recurved, with the crowns in the middle of the tooth row having heights smaller than twice their widths; the front edge of the acromion being outturned; the presence of a pronounced notch between the acromion and the coracoid; the presence of a flange on the first phalanx of the second digit on the finger; and the backward-projecting pubis.

[1] Scansoriopterygidae Avialae Dromaeosauridae Sinovenator Anchiornis huxleyi Xiaotingia zhengi Eosinopteryx brevipenna Liaoningvenator curriei Talos sampsoni Mei long Byronosaurus jaffei Sinornithoides youngi Gobivenator mongoliensis Specimen IGM 100/44 Specimen MPC-D 100/140 Philovenator curriei Linhevenator tani "Troodon formosus" Zanabazar junior Saurornithoides mongoliensis Thin sections from the tibia of the holotype specimen of Liaoningvenator indicate that the cortical bone is 1.5 mm (0.059 in) thick.

There is no external fundamental system (EFS) on the outer rim of the bone, indicating that the holotype was still growing at the time of death.

[1] In a separate 2017 publication for which Shen was also the lead author, an additional troodontid was described, Daliansaurus, which forms the Sinovenatorinae with the former three.

While Shen and colleagues assigned the Lujiatun Beds to the Hauterivian epoch, newer date estimates published by Chang Su-chin and colleagues suggested a younger age of ~126 Ma for the Lujiatun Beds, which dates to the Barremian epoch.

[11] Contemporaneous dinosaurs included the microraptorine dromaeosaurid Graciliraptor; the oviraptorosaur Incisivosaurus; the ornithomimosaurs Shenzhousaurus[12] and Hexing;[13] the proceratosaurid tyrannosauroid Dilong;[12] the titanosauriform sauropod Euhelopus;[14] the ornithopod Jeholosaurus; and ceratopsians such as the ubiquitous Psittacosaurus[15] as well as Liaoceratops.

[22] The Lujiatun Beds consist of fluvial and volcaniclastic deposits, indicating a landscape of rivers bearing volcanoes,[1] which may have killed the preserved animals by lahar.