VALLIBONAVENATRIX

Vallibonavenatrix cani

Etymology: Cano's Vallibona huntress

Nickname: "Valli" or "Valley"

Classification: Carnosauria, Spinosauridae

Diet: Carnivore

Size: 5.5 meters long

Provenance: Arcillas de Morella Formation, Spain - Early Cretaceous, Barremian stage, 125 million years ago

Movie appearances: Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

Vallibonavenatrix cani is a spinosaurid carnosaur theropod, being one of the earliest spinosaurid species to be identified from Spain. It was a relatively small spinosaurid, capable of fast hunting strikes that originated from the Early Cretaceous period, some 125 million years ago. Its fossil material gives us an incomplete image of the animal, and upon resurrection it was revealed to be quite similar to Spinosaurus from North Africa, only lacking the dorsal sail and a gigantic size.

Vallibonavenatrix has been shown to be a very predatory dinosaur, preferring relatively cooler climates wherever it was found, with resurrected individuals being found in Italy, in the BioSyn Sanctuary, with possible reports of them in Malta as well. It has a great adaptability to snowy environments, appropriating blizzards for cover and using the snow for its hunting advantages. It is also quite versatile in hunting in darkened conditions, and has been observed ambushing young ankylosaurs and Locustrix, indicating its capacity of feeding on insects and young dinosaurs.

In 2022, Vallibonaventrix was first recorded attacking humans, when an individual attacked a car in the middle of a snow storm. The first recorded kill was of a Vallibonavenatrix that killed a man named Vito, and possibly his dog Arturo, in Italy, with the Nublar Five attempting to identify its identity, not yet having knowledge of a known feathered dinosaur with these specific characteristics. In another incident, a Vallibonavenatrix enters into conflict with a few Australovenator. The Nublar Five later discover that Vallibonavenatrix was a BioSyn creation, and that this dinosaur's containment was attempted, as well as the bribing of families of the victims of this dinosaur to keep them silenced. The Vallibonavenatrix was captured and placed in a van, but it crashes after an incident with the left front tire that popped after being chewed by a Locustrix, leading the spinosaur to escape. The same individual inspects a car where people are hidden inside protected from the dinosaur. It then escapes to the snowy vicinities and efforts are made to warn the population of the escaped predator. The same Vallibonavenatrix ended up retreating to a locality near the BioSyn Sanctuary, where it then resided, being succeeded by the later reuniting of the Nublar Six. Later, Owen Grady and Kayla Watts crashlanded in the frozen lake in the vicinities of the BioSyn Sanctuary and encountered the same Vallibonavenatrix; Owen falls in the cold water, and the spinosaur plunges in the water to catch him, but Kayla pulls him out of the water before that happens, and the two later escape successfully from the dinosaur.

The resurrection of Vallibonavenatrix ended up being known by the general public, being even represented in a mural painting in the Natural History Museum of North America.

FILM vs. REALITY

DISCLAIMER: Vallibonavenatrix does not appear in any of the Jurassic Park films, being here showcased as just a more plausible replacement for the films' Pyroraptor. The real life Pyroraptor was likely quite different from its fictional counterpart. In the film, Pyroraptor is depicted as a dinosaur of a size comparable to a Deinonychus, but the fossil material we have from this animal suggests a much smaller animal, just 2 meters long and about the size of a turkey. Pyroraptor is likely a serraraptorian dromaeosaur, judging by its enlarged sickle claw and serrated teeth, and if so, it probably was proportioned like its relatives. Therefore details like wing tips attached to the wrist, rather than in the tip of the second hand digit, shows that the film counterpart of Pyroraptor differs from what should be expected from its real life counterpart. The organization of the wing feathers also appears to be quite disorganized, which is not known to have been the case for dromaeosaurids, which had neatly organized wings with a clear outline to enhance aerodynamics. The skull anatomy of the films' Pyroraptor appears to also be very unlike what should be expected for dromaeosaurids, with the eyes positioned too forward in the skull and the mouth outline being unnaturally designed. The film Pyroraptor is also depicted having webbed feet and great capacities for underwater propulsion. Based on its immediate relatives, that type of ecology appears unlikely, even though halszkaraptorines show that aquatic lifestyles, in some capacity, were adopted by basal paravians in real life. Judging by the size of the sickle claws of the real life Pyroraptor it would be expected that this animal was not different from other more terrestrial hunting dromaeosaurids, making an aquatic diving lifestyle quite unlikely. The adaptation of the films' Pyroraptor to a cold and snowy environment is also improbable, given the real life animal lived in a lusher and much warmer environment.

Vallibonavenatrix approaches much more the ecology and behaviors of the films' Pyroraptor by a collection of factors. Firstly, the aquatic lifestyles are consistent with Vallibonavenatrix, as it belongs to the spinosaurid family, a group of dinosaurs well known for displaying evidence of aquatic capacities. Although graceful diving and underwater swimming appears less probable, webbed feet probably aided in some maneuverable swimming, and considering Vallibonavenatrix was probably a spinosaurine, therefore sharing the relatively shorter legs of relatives, like Spinosaurus, it probably was more equipped for water-based movements than other tall-legged theropods. Despite the aquatic lifestyles of spinosaurids, there is evidence that they could very well be versatile hunters of terrestrial prey of varying kinds, consistent with the behavior of Pyroraptor as a terrestrial hunter in the films. The most striking feature of Pyroraptor in the franchise is the presence of its bright red feather coat, contrasting with the more scaly appearance of other dinosaurs in the films. Although feathers are not known from the spinosaurid family, indeed any kind of integument, the feathered Sciurumimus is occasionally regarded as a member of the wider megalosauroid group, expanding the application of a feathered integument to this group of theropods, which includes spinosaurids like Vallibonavenatrix. Although reddish feathers may appear like an advanced coloration for primitive dinosaurian feathers, they're a totally achievable coloration for primitive and simple feathers, making a reddish color rather likely for the feathers of both Pyroraptor and Vallibonavenatrix, in theory. Although Vallibonavenatrix likely did not inhabit a particularly snowy biome in real life, there is evidence of glaciation in Spain around the time it lived in, during the early Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Its somewhat possible that Vallibonavenatrix might have encountered ice and snow in real life, showing already a possible precedent for this animal to be a suitable replacement for the snow loving Pyroraptor in the films.