Allosaurus Pictures & Facts - The Dinosaur Database

Perhaps the second most famous carnosaur after Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Allosaurus was a powerful carnivorous theropod that lived during the late Jurassic period.

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Allosaurus was known for many years under the name Antrodemus, because it was first categorized by O.C. Marsh under that name. However, as with many discoveries from this competitive period of paleontology, there were profound issues with the verifiability of the discovery. In the latter half of the 20th century, it became preferable to refer to Allosaurus rather than Antrodemus, because that was the name assigned to the first well-documented discoveries.

Allosaurus is frequently depicted in art as having longer forelimbs than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, with three fingers instead of two. It is also known to be somewhat smaller, with the largest specimen reaching 32 feet in length.

An Allosaurus trots through the forest until it spies a young Stegosaurus&#;one of this dino&#;s favorite meals. Running on two feet, the carnivore sprints about 21 miles an hour, about as fast as a car driving through a neighborhood. With eight-inch-long claws, it grabs Stegosaurus and chomps down with 70 sharp, thick teeth. Lunch is served.

Deadly carnivore

Experts aren&#;t sure if Allosaurus always hunted live prey&#;including giant plant-eaters like Apatosaurus&#;or if it sometimes scavenged dead or dying animals. Either way, Allosaurus was built to eat meat. Recent research on dino skulls found that Allosaurus could open its jaw so wide that it might&#;ve sometimes slashed its toothy upper jaw at prey, like a sharp knife. Then once it was time to grab a bite, Allosaurus likely ripped off pieces of meat by yanking its head backward, similar to how falcons and other raptors dine. Paleontologists have even found an Allosaurus bite mark on the neck plate of a Stegosaurus.

Allosaurus lived about 145 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. Part of the theropod family&#;a group of dinosaurs that ran on two feet&#;this dino could grow up to 40 feet from head to tail, about the size of Tyrannosaurus rex (though most Allosaurus fossils are about 28 feet long). But T. rex, which lived about 76 million years later, had puny arms compared to Allosaurus&#; forelimbs: Experts think it used its strong arms and clawed hands to hold struggling prey.

Strange reptile

The name Allosaurus comes from Greek words meaning &#;strange reptile.&#; Why? When the fossils were first discovered in the s, the small bones forming the backbone were shaped like hourglasses, and that was different from other dinosaur spines that scientists had examined at that time.

Fossils of Allosaurus have been found in Colorado, Utah (where it&#;s the state fossil), Wyoming, and Montana, as well as in the countries of Tanzania and Germany.

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Anchiornis

Ali and Sean travel back 150 million years to the Jurassic period to get a look at a flying dinosaur called the Anchiornis. Tour guide Simon reveals that this dinosaur actually had feathers!

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