Allosaurus

Allosaurus is one of the most fearsome dinosaurs ever to have roamed the earth, weighing up to two and a half tonnes and measuring around 12m in length. The apex predator of the Late Jurassic period, Allosaurus’ enormous skull contains rows of large, serrated teeth for tearing flesh, while its long, powerful tail helps it to balance.

Discovery

The first official discovery of Allosaurus fossils came in 1877, when Othniel Charles Marsh found fragments of an unknown dinosaur in Colorado. At the time, the fossils were so unlike any previously found dinosaur bones that Marsh named it Allosaurus, meaning ‘different lizard’. Two years later, more fossils were unearthed by H. F. Hubbell, although the quality of the near-complete skeleton was not realised until 1908, after Cope had died. With thousands of fossils emerging in the intervening years, Allosaurus fossils are now among the most commonly discovered dinosaur bones.

Palaeoecology

Allosaurus lived around 150 million years ago in the forests and floodplains of the western United States, most notably Utah and Colorado. It co-existed with many other species of dinosaur, feeding mostly on large herbivores such as Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus.