| Allosauroidea Fossil range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, 176-93 Ma | |
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 Allosaurus skull at the San Diego Natural History Museum. | |
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Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains three families — the Sinraptoridae, Carcharodontosauridae and Allosauridae. The oldest-known allosauroid, Sinraptor dongi, appeared in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) of China, and the latest-known survivors of the family are the carcharodontosaurids of the Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian 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.
Systematics[]
Taxonomy[]
- Superfamily Allosauroidea
- Genus Becklespinax?
- Genus Aerosteon [1]
- Family Allosauridae
- Family Carcharodontosauridae
- Family Metriacanthosauridae
Phylogeny[]
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 2000 analysis by Currie and Carpenter.[2]
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References[]
- ^ "Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina.". PLoS ONE 3 (9): e3303doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0003303. Sept 2008. doi:. http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003303. Retrieved on 2008-09-29.
- ^ Currie, Philip J.; & Carpenter, Kenneth. (2000). "A new specimen of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis (Theropoda, Dinosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous Antlers Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Aptian) of Oklahoma, USA". Geodiversitas 22 (2): 207–246. http://www.mnhn.fr/publication/geodiv/g00n2a3.html.
- Currie, P. J., and X. Zhao. 1993. A new carnosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30:2037-2081.
- Holtz, T. R., Jr. and Osmólska H. 2004. Saurischia; pp. 21-24 in D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria (2nd ed.), University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Sereno, P. C. 1997. The origin and evolution of dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 25:435-489.
- Sereno, P. C. 1998. A rationale for phylogenetic definitions, with application to the higher-level taxonomy of Dinosauria. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 210:41-83.