Saurophaganax | |
---|---|
Reconstructed skeleton at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | †Carnosauria |
Superfamily: | †Allosauroidea |
Genus: | †Saurophaganax Chure, 1995 |
Species: | †S. maximus
|
Binomial name | |
†Saurophaganax maximus Chure, 1995
| |
Synonyms | |
|
Saurophaganax ("lord of lizard-eaters") is a genus of large allosauroid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic (latest Kimmeridgian age, about 151 million years ago) Oklahoma, United States.[1] Some paleontologists consider it to be a junior synonym and species of Allosaurus (as A. maximus). Saurophaganax represents a very large Morrison allosauroid characterized by horizontal laminae at the bases of the dorsal neural spines above the transverse processes, and "meat-chopper" chevrons.[2] It was the largest terrestrial carnivore of North America during the Late Jurassic, reaching 10.5 metres (34 ft) in length and 2.7–3.8 metric tons (3.0–4.2 short tons) in body mass.