Introduction:
Allosaurus, one of the most famous Dinosaurs of all time. It is so popular that probably even your grandmother knows it. Allosaurus has appeared in many different books, documentaries, TV shows, films and so much more. You have seen it a bunch of times in museums and the reason is because of good fossilization that preserved the dinosaur and the reason for becoming the Lion of the Jurassic Period.
It was one of the most biggest, predatory dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth. Allosaurus is common yet unique compared to all the other dinosaurs that you can instantly find it out in a bag of dinosaur toys. In this article, I will go over simple facts and easily define what makes an Allosaurus. So, let’s get started!!!
Discovery of Allosaurus:
Allosaurus was discovered by a famous paleontologist, Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 in the Morrison Formation, Colorado in the USA. Morrison Formation is well known for having a lot of Jurassic Period dinosaurs and even many new species are still being discovered. The paleontologist discovered the Allosaurus in the middle of something called the Bone Wars.
The name Allosaurus comes from Greek words and it meant ‘different lizard’ because of the vertebrae fossils were different from regular dinosaurs. And the other part of the name was fragilis because the fossils were fragile.And so, the species name came to be Allosaurus fragilis. There are three different species of Allosaurus and they are Allosaurus fragilis, Allosaurus jimmadseni, and Allosaurus europaeus.
They are different in some way but they are all still Allosaurus, like how they are different types of Tigers but in the end, they are still tigers, it is the same situation. Allosaurus fragilis was discovered in Morrison Formation, A. jimmadseni was discovered in Cleveland-Lloyd Formation whereas A. europaeus was discovered in Lourinha Formation of Portugal but the most discovered species is A. fragilis with at least 60 individuals discovered.
It is a regular find in paleontology that many dinosaurs were named because the finds were fragmentary but further research proved it was an Allosaurus. This is mostly the case for fragmentary fossils but that is why more researchers are needed, like yourself, if you want to be a part of this exciting field. Maybe you can find out if A. europaeus is new or just A. fragilis because the finds for A. europaeus is too fragmentary.
Biology of Allosaurus:
Allosaurus is a carnivorous dinosaur eating only meat and it can grow up to 32 ft long and 7 ft in height. It was a well-adapted, slim, as well as fast build predator. The dinosaur had a long tail to balance it’s own weight as well help in turning while running. The creature had strong arms with 3 deadly claws on each hand to slash at it’s prey and slashing teeth to slice the meat like butter. It was also one of the only carnivores that could open their open mouth very wide.
It also had a pretty long neck for a carnivore and most important of all, it had horns above and in front of the eyes with ridges going down to the mouth. These facial features were probably protected with keratin, the stuff that makes your nails hard.
It probably lived in lush, tropical area with dry seasons and wet seasons. It could have hunted in packs but the pack behavior is hard to know for the extinct animals. Sometimes, they might be found together but that does not mean they lived in groups but fossilized tracks can help if they are found alongside with others of different sizes walking together for a long way. The diversity of dinosaurs during Jurassic USA was so much that the ecosystem could support evolving an apex predator to roam the land. There will be separate post listing the classification of all the superfamily, Allosauroidea, which includes it and many more species.
FAQ:
Was Allosaurus bigger than t rex?
Allosaurus was not bigger than a T. rex because it was one of the many carnivorous that started to grow large during the Jurassic Period. It was the time when dinosaurs started to grow big but not hit the maximum size range which why it was smaller than a T. rex but still big enough to be one of the largest predators of Jurassic Period.
Was the Allosaurus aggressive?
In a sense, Allosaurus was aggressive because all predators are kind of aggressive. But it is not the kind of aggressive you think it may be because it is not going to hunt down dinosaurs and other animals the whole time. You have to remember that dinosaurs are animals and not monsters. People forget that easily when they see a bit of teeth and scales. It also took care of its’ babies and for others, their hunts end up in failures which would mean they would have to sleep hungry that night, they also sleep and need to drink water when there are a lot of dinosaurs nearby the water, and they might get injured for which they would need to rest and heal and sometimes even die because of that.
So next time, when someone asks something like this, you know the true answer, the life of a predator is hard and we think because of that they are aggressive. Same thing happens when a tiger in zoo is less aggressive than the one in the wild.
Why is Allosaurus so popular?
Allosaurus’ popularity is kind of given with the amount of media coverage it has as well as it is one of the most well-researched dinosaur. The discovery of this fossil during the Bone Wars made it popular due to its abundance of fossils. It also a nickname which is the Lion of Jurassic Period because it just makes sense as to why it is so popular and prominent in the mainstream media.
Media:
With its popularity, Allosaurus has appeared in many different media across many different formats. It has appeared in Novels to Documentaries to Films and of course a lot of games. I will try to list down all the media in which it has appeared in and let me know down in the comments in below:
Games:
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Dino Crisis 2
- Dino Hunter: Deadly Shores
- Dinosaur King
- Jurassic Park: Builder
- Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
- Jurassic World: Alive
- Jurassic World: Evolution
- Jurassic World: Evolution 2
- Jurassic World: The Game
- Path of Titans
- Prehistoric Kingdom
- The Isle
- Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs
Films:
- A Sound of Thunder
- Ice Age
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Jurassic World: Battle At Big Rock
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- Land of the Lost
- Scooby-Doo: Legend of the Phantosaur
- The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock
- The Lost World (1925)
- The Lost World (2001)
- The Valley of Gwangi
Documentaries:
- Dinosaur Revolution
- Jurassic Fight Club
- Life On Our Planet
- Planet Dinosaur
- The Ballad of Big Al
- Walking with Dinosaurs
- Walking with Monsters
- When Dinosaurs Roamed America
Series:
- Dinosaur King
- Dinosaur Train
- Jurassic World: Chaos Theory
- Power Rangers: Dino Charge
Novels:
- The Lost World
Merchandise of Allosaurus:
And let’s not forget, action figures. There are tons of action figures and models you can get and you can follow my Amazon affiliate links to get some awesome figures!!! You can check out more dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures post from the Species Profile page!!
