Microvenator celer Ostrom, 1970

Rauhut, Oliver W. M., 2003, The interrelationships and evolution of basal theropod dinosaurs, Special papers in palaeontology 69, pp. 1-213 : 30

Microvenator celer Ostrom, 1970

Age . Aptian-Albian.

Occurrence. Cloverly Formation, Montana and Wyoming, USA.

Diagnosis. Cervical neural arches without neural spines; cervical vertebral centra with two pairs of pleurocoels, the posterior pair being significantly smaller than the anterior pair, slightly dorsal to them and located at the midlength of the centrum.

Remarks. Microvenator is an enigmatic small theropod, so far only known from the holotype (Ostrom 1970; Makovicky and Sues 1998). The taxon was originally referred to the Coeluridae by Ostrom (1970), but recently Makovicky and Sues (1998) made a strong case for Microvenator to represent one of the oldest known oviraptorosaurs. Unfortunately, not much is known of the skull of this taxon, with the exception of some rather uninformative fragments (Makovicky and Sues 1998). Since the diagnosis of Oviraptorosauria, as presented here, is mainly based on cranial characters, M. celer is treated as a distinct taxon.