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Description

First described in 1877 at the height of the “Bone Wars” by Othneil Charles Marsh, Allosaurus was one of the most successful and wide spread predators of the Late Jurassic Period (approximately 155-150 million years ago) with most of it’s remains being found the Morrison Formation in Western North America and related specimens having been found as far away as Portugal, and possibly as far off as Tanzania.
Allosaurus was named from the Greek for “different lizard” because of a trait found in the central parts of it’s vertebrae which had a concave cup-like shape on the back end of it’s surface.
Structural analysis of their skulls and examination of the muscle attachments in the jaw have shown that Allosaurs had a much weaker bite than other predators of their size (maxing out at around 32 feet and weighing in at roughly 2.5 tons). Their jaw was capable of opening up to an astounding 92 degree angle, and their skull appears to have been build to take an enormous amount of abuse, being able to withstand upwards of 55,500 newtons of force, more than 6 times the estimated maximum bite force it was capable of. It’s thought that they would open their jaws wide and slam their upper jaw into their prey, slashing their targets with their teeth almost using their head like it was some sort of toothy ax.

Description

First described in 1877 at the height of the “Bone Wars” by Othneil Charles Marsh, Allosaurus was one of the most successful and wide spread predators of the Late Jurassic Period (approximately 155-150 million years ago) with most of it’s remains being found the Morrison Formation in Western North America and related specimens having been found as far away as Portugal, and possibly as far off as Tanzania.
Allosaurus was named from the Greek for “different lizard” because of a trait found in the central parts of it’s vertebrae which had a concave cup-like shape on the back end of it’s surface.
Structural analysis of their skulls and examination of the muscle attachments in the jaw have shown that Allosaurs had a much weaker bite than other predators of their size (maxing out at around 32 feet and weighing in at roughly 2.5 tons). Their jaw was capable of opening up to an astounding 92 degree angle, and their skull appears to have been build to take an enormous amount of abuse, being able to withstand upwards of 55,500 newtons of force, more than 6 times the estimated maximum bite force it was capable of. It’s thought that they would open their jaws wide and slam their upper jaw into their prey, slashing their targets with their teeth almost using their head like it was some sort of toothy ax.