Saurophaganax
Saurophaganax ("lord of lizard-eaters") is a genus of large allosaurid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic (latest Kimmeridgian age, about 151 million years ago) Oklahoma, United States. Some paleontologists consider it to be a junior synonym and species of Allosaurus (as A. maximus). Saurophaganax represents a very large Morrison allosaurid characterized by horizontal laminae at the bases of the dorsal neural spines above the transverse processes, and "meat-chopper" chevrons. 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.
| 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: | †Allosauria |
| Family: | †Allosauridae |
| Genus: | †Saurophaganax Chure, 1995 |
| Species: | †S. maximus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Saurophaganax maximus Chure, 1995 | |
| Synonyms | |
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