Allosaurus
Name	Allosaurus
Order	Saurischia
Suborder	Theropoda
Class	Reptila
Name Translation	Strange Lizard
Period	Late Jurassic
Diet	Meat
Length	27-33 ft (up to 40 ft if Epanterias is a large A. fragilis)

Allosaurus (al-OH-sore-US) (Marsh, 1877) meaning, "strange-lizard", was one of the largest Jurassic predators known, growing in average up  to 30 feet (9 meters) while larger animals could grow up to 35 feet (10 meters). It had a large skull with eye ridges, and long, flesh-rending claws. It ate many different dinosaurs, such as the ornithopod Dryosaurus, the stegosaurid Stegosaurus, and even young sauropods like Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Due to its large size and 'new-age' design, the previous apex Jurassic predator Ceratosaurus was very hard competition since it was around the same size, but it itself had to deal with a harder competition with a large megalosaurid named Torvosaurus as well as with the similarly-sized Megalosaurus. Saurophaganax is a larger allosaurid species that grew up to 40 feet (12 meters) and it drove Torvosaurus and the equally gigantic Edmarka to an even more difficult standoff. One particularly well-preserved specimen, nicknamed "Big Al", was found not too long ago in Wyoming. While Allosaurus was a hunter, they was also scavengers. It would find dead animals or animals dying to feast on. "Big Al" had many different injuries from throughout its short, seven year life, yet surviving all but the last one, an infected toe wound. This would have left the animal unable to hunt, and it would have starved or died of thirst.

SkullEdit

Allosaurus' skull was double hinged. This allowed it to open its mouth extremely wide, allowing it to have a huge bite radius. One hinge was near the front of the jaw like a snake's, and the other was near the back of the jawbone. However, recent studies seem to show that Allosaurus had a relatively low bite force, much less than the value of sharks and crocodiles and even inferior to that of most big cats, despite being much bigger. It seems that Allosaurus attacked like an axe, using its double-hinged jaw to open really wide and dropping the top part of its skull into its prey with a large amount of pressure while holding it steady with its strong arms. A constant repetition of this method would have led to a massive amount of blood loss and shock. It was a very efficient way of killing, and it's probably why Allosaurus was so successful as

a hunter.

In Popular CultureEdit

Allosaurus has appeared multiple times in the famous Walking With Dinosaurs series. It was featured in the special, The Ballad of Big Al.

Allosaurus has been featured in three episodes of the History Channel series Jurassic Fight Club fighting two Ceratosaurus as three Allosaurus attack a Stegosaurus, however one gets killed as a herd of Camarasaurus come to drink the water but one gets stuck, as it gets the Allosaurus's attention.

Allosaurus can also be found in the Dinosaur Digs expansion pack for the popular PC game, Zoo Tycoon.

Allosaurus also was on a list of animals supossedly to be in the fourth Jurassic Park movie, however it isn't confirmed.

Allosaurus has also been featured in the Jurassic Park park-builder sim Operation Genesis.

Allosaurus appears in the game Dino Crisis 2 as a mid-game rival and in the arena as a fighter. Allosaurus also appears in Dinosaur King and Dinosaur Master.

It also appears in Din

Allosaurus - Planet Dinosaur - Episode 4 - BBC One-0(04:51)
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osaur Revolution. The main allosaur in the show has its jaw broken by the tail of a Dinheirosaurus. It also was shown to attack a Torvosaurus despite the size difference.

Allosaurus appears in Planet Dinosaur where it fails on its first hunt for a Stegosaurus. It later kills a Camptosaurus, but unfortunately a Saurophaganax steals its prey.

GalleryEdit