Metriacanthosaurus
Name:
Metriacanthosaurus
(Moderately spined lizard).
Phonetic: Met-ree-ah-can-foe-sore-us.
Named By: Alick Walker - 1964.
Synonyms: Megalosaurus parkeri,
Altispinax parkeri.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Allosauroidea, Sinraptoridae,
Metriacanthosaurinae.
Species: M. parkeri (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: femur 80 centimetres long. Total size
uncertain due to lack of remains, but
comparison to similar theropod dinosaurs yields rough estimates of
about 6 meters long for the holotype.
Known locations: England - Oxford Clay.
Time period: Oxfordian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains.
Like
with many early theropods, especially European ones,
Metriacanthosaurus was originally named as a
species of Megalosaurus,
a dinosaur that in the early years of palaeontology ended up being
used as a wastebasket taxon for almost any theropod remains. The
initial naming was made by the German palaeontologist Friedrich von
Huene, who named the species Megalosaurus parkeri,
in honour of W.
Parker who had recovered the remains from Weymouth. In 1932 von
Huene moved them over to Altispinax
due to the
fossils tall neural
spines of the vertebrae.
The
current name of Metriacanthosaurus did not come
about until 1964
when Alick Walker made a special note of the size of the neural
spines. These neural spines are taller than those of Megalosaurus,
but shorter than those of Altispinax, leading to
the name
Metriacanthosaurus which means ‘moderately spined
lizard’. In
life these neural spines probably would have supported a low hump like
growth possibly similar to that of the North American Acrocanthosaurus
of the early Cretaceous.
Metriacanthosaurus
is classed as a sinraptorid theropod that is thought to be closely
related to the Asian Yangchuanosaurus.
Further reading
- Carnivorous Saurischia in Europe since the Triassic. - Bulletin of
the Geological Society of America 34: 449–458. - F. von Huene - 1923.
- Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus
and the origin
of carnosaurs. - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London, Series B, Biological Sciences 248:53-134. - A. D. Walker -
1964.
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