Becklespinax

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Becklespinax
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Infraorder:	Carnosauria
Superfamily:	Allosauroidea
Genus:	Becklespinax Olshevsky, 1991
Species:	B. altispinax

Binomial name

Becklespinax altispinax
(Paul, 1988)

Synonyms

Acrocanthosaurus altispinax Paul, 1988

Becklespinax was a large Early Cretaceous carnosaur based on a type specimen of three tall-spined vertebrae found in 1884 in Sussex, England by the fossil collector Samuel H. Beckles.

Its classification has proved difficult. The vertebrae were originally assumed to be linked with some theropod teeth and the result named Altispinax dunkeri, a species of the Megalosauroid superfamily. Later this link was shown to be unjustified, and the vertebrae identified as belonging to a new species of Acrocanthosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus altispinax. In 1991 it was reassigned to a new sinraptorid genus, Becklespinax, by George Olshevsky, in honour of its discoverer Beckles.

This animal was probably on the order of 26 feet (8 metres) long and 1.5 tons (1.5 tonnes) in mass.