Saurophaganax
| Saurophaganax Temporal range: Upper Jurassic | |
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| Saurophaganax vs Apatosaurus | |
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| Genus: | Saurophaganax Chure, 1995 |
Saurophaganax ("lord of the lizard eaters") is a genus of allosaurid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Upper Jurassic in Oklahoma. It lived about 151 million years ago).[1]
Saurophaganax was a very large Morrison allosaurid. The maximum size of S. maximus has been estimated at anywhere from 10.5 metres (34 ft)[2] to 13 m (43 ft) in length,[3] and around 3 tonnes (3.0 long tons; 3.3 short tons) in weight.[2] This means it was perhaps similar in size to Tyrannosaurus or Carcharodontosaurus.
In 2024 Andy Danison and others concluded that saurophaganeax is a nomin dubium (doubtful name) and its fossils actually belonged to a sauropod and allosaurus. The material reassigned to allosaurus warrented a new species as it was different enough from other allosaurus species. The species was named Allosaurus Anax. This means that allosaurus is once again the largest carnivore of the morrison formation
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Turner C.E. and Peterson F. 1999. Biostratigraphy of dinosaurs in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Western Interior, U.S.A. Pp. 77–114 in Gillette D.D. (ed) Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah. Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1.
- 1 2 Paul G.S. 2010. The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press p. 112
- ↑ Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. 2011. Dinosaurs: the most complete, up-to-date encyclopedia for dinosaur lovers of all ages, Winter 2010 Appendix.
