| Athenar | |
|---|---|
.png) | |
| Holotype braincase ofA. bermani | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Diplodocoidea |
| Family: | †Dicraeosauridae |
| Genus: | †Athenar Whitlock et al.,2025 |
| Species: | †A. bermani |
| Binomial name | |
| †Athenar bermani Whitlock et al., 2025 | |
Athenar is an extinctgenus ofdicraeosauridsauropod dinosaur from theLate Jurassic ofUtah, United States. The genus contains asingle species,Athenar bermani, which was described by John Whitlock and colleagues in 2025 based off theholotype specimenCM 26552: abraincase andskull roof previously ascribed to the genusDiplodocus. The specimen was found in rocks belonging to theMorrison Formation at theCarnegie Quarry atDinosaur National Monument.
Athenar existed during theTithonian age of the Late Jurassic, and would have lived alongside other dinosaurs such as the carnivorousAllosaurus and the herbivorousStegosaurus,Diplodocus andCamptosaurus.
Theholotype specimen ofAthenar, CM 26552, consists of abraincase and partialskull roof that was recovered fromMorrison Formation rocks at theCarnegie Quarry atDinosaur National Monument,Utah. This material was originally collected byEarl Douglass in 1913, before being briefly described in a 1978 publication byJohn McIntosh and David Berman. In this work, the pair assigned the specimen toDiplodocus, based on characters shared with other skulls of the genus known at the time. This specimen formed the basis for their description of the braincase ofDiplodocus.[1]
Whitlock and colleagues published a reevaluation of the specimen in 2025, describing the skull in detail and using methods that came into use after the original description by McIntosh and Berman to explore its phylogenetic position withinDiplodocoidea. Following their results, they decided to assign the specimen to the novel genus and speciesAthenar bermani.[2]
The generic nameAthenar refers toCleveland metal artistAthenar, whose music was "the soundtrack to the majority of the work done on this specimen".[2] The specific epithetbermani honors David Berman who, together with McIntosh, carried out much of the foundational modern work on diplodocoid skulls at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and was responsible for the initial description of the holotype specimen.[2]
Thetype and only specimen ofAthenar consists of abraincase and partialskull roof, containing portions of the right and leftfrontal bones, bothparietal bones, partialpostorbital bones and portions of thesquamosals. A distal portion of the right paraoccipital process and part of the rightsquamosal were found with the specimen and later attached withplaster, although this has fractured with no way of connecting the elements back together.[2]
Although the holotype material is quite large when compared to the subadult and adult specimens ofDiplodocus, Whitlock and colleagues consider it to belong to a 'subadult' individual due to the presence ofsutures between many of the elements of the braincase.[2]
While originally assigned toDiplodocus, Whitlock and colleagues propose an alternativephylogenetic placement for the specimen in thecladeDicraeosauridae. Dicraeosaurids are closely related to thediplodocids (which includes the namesakeDiplodocus), and are characterised by their overall smaller size and shorter necks when compared to otherflagellicaudatans. While the skull possesses a number of characteristics of both Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae, Whitlock and colleagues consider the dicraeosaurid characters to be more numerous than the diplodocid ones. This includes the presence of frontoparietal and postparietalfenestrae (holes in the skull) and the presence of a distinct prong on thesquamosal bone, among other features.[2]
Three other dicraeosaurid taxa are known to be coeval withAthenar:Kaatedocus,Smitanosaurus andSuuwassea. The taxon has two notable differences in skull anatomy when compared to all three, and was potentially larger in adult size and younger in age thanSuuwassea. However, in bothSuuwassea andAthenar thefrontal bone contributes to thesupratemporal fenestra, which may indicate a close relationship between the two taxa. The taxon also shares traits with non-North American dicraeosaurs likeAmargasaurus.[2]
Athenar is known from the Late JurassicMorrison Formation, a rock sequence with outcrops throughout the western United States and is known for its rich dinosaur fauna.[3]Radiometric dating indicates the formation is about 156.3 million years old (Ma) at the base and up to 146.8 million years old at the top, placing it within the latestOxfordian,Kimmeridgian, and earlyTithonian ages of theLate Jurassic epoch.[4][5] The Morrison Formation is comparable in age and faunal composition to theLourinhã Formation in Portugal and theTendaguru Formation in Tanzania.[6]
The holotype ofAthenar was found in theCarnegie Quarry, located atDinosaur National Monument in Utah.[2] Animals that lived alongside it include the herbivorousornithischiansStegosaurus,Dryosaurus andCamptosaurus, the carnivoroustheropodsAllosaurus andCeratosaurus and numerous othersauropod taxa, includingDiplodocus,Apatosaurus,Barosaurus andCamarasaurus.[7]
