Allosauroids Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, 176–70 Ma |
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Allosaurus skull at the San Diego Natural History Museum. | |||||||
Scientific classification | |||||||
Kingdom: | Animalia | ||||||
Phylum: | Chordata | ||||||
Class: | Reptilia | ||||||
Superorder: | Dinosauria | ||||||
Order: | Saurischia | ||||||
Suborder: | Theropoda | ||||||
Node: | Avetheropoda | ||||||
Infraorder: | †Carnosauria | ||||||
Superfamily: | †Allosauroidea Marsh, 1878 |
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Subgroups | |||||||
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Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains four families — the Sinraptoridae, Allosauridae, Carcharodontosauridae, and Neovenatoridae. The oldest-known allosauroid, Sinraptor dongi, appeared in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) of China, and the latest-known survivor of the group is the neovenatorid Orkoraptor of the Late Cretaceous, (Maastrichtian stage). Allosauroids had long, narrow skulls, large orbits, three-fingered hands, and usually had "horns" or ornamental crests on their heads. The most famous and best understood allosauroid is the North American genus Allosaurus.
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The clade Allosauroidea was originally proposed by Phil Currie and Zhao (1993; p. 2079), and later used as an undefined stem-based taxon by Paul Sereno (1997). Sereno (1998; p. 64) was the first to provide a stem-based definition for the Allosauroidea, defining the clade as "All neotetanurans closer to Allosaurus than to Neornithes." Kevin Padian (2007) used a node-based definition, defined the Allosauroidea as Allosaurus, Sinraptor, their most recent common ancestor, and all of its descendants. Thomas R. Holtz and colleagues (2004; p. 100) and Phil Currie and Ken Carpenter (2000), among others, have followed this node-based definition. However, in some analyses (such as Currie & Carpenter, 2000), the placement of the carcharodontosaurids relative to the allosaurids and sinraptorids is uncertain, and therefore it is uncertain whether or not they are allosauroids (Currie & Carpenter, 2000).
The cladogram presented here follows the 2010 analysis by Benson, Carrano and Brusatte.[1]
Allosauroidea |
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CPT-1980 is the museum catalog number for an isolated, 9.83 centimetres (3.87 in), allosauroid tooth crown currently housed at the Museo Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel.[2] In 2009, the tooth was compared to another allosauroid tooth from Portugal that measured 12.7 centimetres (5.0 in). Analysis led to the conclusion that CPT-1980 is the largest theropod tooth ever discovered in Spain. The theropod most likely measured between 6 and 15 meters long. This tooth was discovered by locals near Riodeva, Teruel in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, more specifically known as RD-39. The rocks have been dated to the Tithonian-Berriasian stages (Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous).[2]