Allosauroidea

Allosauroids Temporal range: Early Jurassic – Cretaceous
Allosaurus skull at the San Diego Natural History Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Infraorder:	Carnosauria
Superfamily:	Allosauroidea
Families
Allosauridae Carcharodontosauridae Sinraptoridae

Allosauroidea is a clade subdivided into three families — the Sinraptoridae, Carcharodontosauridae and Allosauridae. The taxon was originally proposed by Currie and Zhao (1993; p. 2079), then noted as an undefined stem-based taxon by Sereno (1997). Later, Sereno (1998; p. 64) provided a stem-based definition for the Allosauroidea, defining the clade as "All neotetanurans closer to Allosaurus than to Neornithes." Most recently, Holtz et al. (2004; p. 100) defined the Allosauroidea as "Allosaurus fragilis, Sinraptor dongi, their most recent common ancestor, and all of its descendants."

The oldest-known allosauroid, Sinraptor dongi, appeared in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) of China, and the latest-known survivors of the clade are the carcharodontosaurids of the Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian stage). Allosauroids had long, narrows skulls, large orbits, three-digit hands, and usually had "horns" or ornamental crests on their heads. The most famous and best understood allosauroid is the North American genus Allosaurus.

Taxonomy

• Superfamily Allosauroidea
  • Becklespinax?
  • Megaraptor?
  • Family Allosauridae
    • Allosaurus
    • Antrodemus
    • Epanterias
    • Saurophaganax
  • Family Carcharodontosauridae
    • Acrocanthosaurus?
    • Carcharodontosaurus
    • Neovenator
    • Subfamily Giganotosaurinae
      • Giganotosaurus
      • Mapusaurus
      • Tyrannotitan
  • Family Sinraptoridae
    • Metriacanthosaurus
    • Sinraptor
    • Yangchuanosaurus

References

• 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.