Fosterovenator

In 1879 during an expedition by paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Arthur Lakes to the Quarry 12 outcrop of the Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation in Como Bluff, Wyoming, several small theropod fossils were unearthed. The strata of Quarry 12 derive from the late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian stages of the Late Jurassic, in numerical terms around 155 to 147 million years old. This was one of many expeditions carried out during the Bone Wars, a competition between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, which collected scores of dinosaur skeletons from the Morrison Formation. Among the theropod fossils collected was a nearly complete right tibia (shin bone) and a co-ossified (joined) astragalus of a juvenile individual. Additionally, a right fibula of an adult individual was unearthed. These fossils were deposited at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, Connecticut where the right tibia and associated astragalus were given the specimen number YPM VP 058267 A-C whereas the fibula is YPM VP 058267 D. This was one of many dinosaur specimens discovered at Quarry 12 during the late 19th century, with the site producing fossils of the theropods Allosaurus and Torvosaurus,^[3][1] sauropods Camarasaurus and Diplodocus, and the ornithischian Stegosaurus.^[4][5]

YPM VP 058267 A-D was described in scientific literature in the journal Volumina Jurassica in 2014 by researcher Sebastian G. Dalman. The right tibia and associated astragalus (YPM VP 058267 A-C) were designated the type specimen of a new genus and species, Fosterovenator churei.^[1] The generic name Fosterovenator honors paleontologist John R. Foster and the Greek root venator ("hunter"). The specific name churei honors paleontologist Daniel J. Chure.^[1] YPM VP 058267 D was made a paratype of Fosterovenator churei, however some have argued that they do not come from the same taxon.^[6]