Vallibonavenatrix

Vallibonavenatrix (meaning "Vallibona huntress" after the town near where its remains were found) is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Arcillas de Morella Formation of Castellón, Spain.

[1] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, amateur fossil collector Juan Cano Forner was recovering bones from various localities in Els Ports Natural Park, located in the Province of Castellón, Spain.

[1] In 2019, Elisabete Malafaia and colleagues published their description of a new genus and species of spinosaurid dinosaur, Vallibonavenatrix cani, with the partial skeleton as the holotype specimen.

Though closer in proximity to European baryonychines such as Baryonyx from the Barremian of Spain and England, Vallibonavenatrix was found to be more closely related to spinosaurines such as Spinosaurus and Irritator from the southern supercontinent Gondwana, and the Asian genus Ichthyovenator.

[4] Vallibonavenatrix hails from the Arcillas de Morella Formation, which has been dated to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous period, between 129.4 and 125 million years ago.

Life restoration of Vallibonavenatrix eating a fish