Ask just about anyone to name a meat-eating dinosaur and
they are quite likely to say “Tyrannosaurus”. This was a fearsome hunter that lived
at the end of the Age of the Dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. However,
there was a very similar animal that filled the same niche in the natural world
90 million years earlier; this was Allosaurus.
Allosaurus lived during the late Jurassic about 155-150
million years ago. Fossils have found in the American midwest, notably Utah,
Wyoming and Colorado. However, close relatives of Allosaurus may have lived in
what is now Europe and Africa.
Allosaurus was 11-12 metres in length (36-39 feet) and could
have weighed up to four tons. It had a massive head (up to a metre long) and
jaws that could be flexed to allow huge bites to be taken.
The late Jurassic was also populated by massive sauropod
dinosaurs including Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus. These may well have formed a
major part of the diet of Allosaurus.
© John Welford
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