Early Jurassic predatory dinosaurs are very rare, and mostly small in size. Saltriovenator zanellai, a new genus and species described in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ – the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences by Italian paleontologists, is the oldest known ceratosaurian, and the world’s largest (one ton) predatory dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic (Sinemurian, ~198 Mya).