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Torvosaurus
Megalosaurid theropod dinosaur genus from Late Jurassic Period / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torvosaurus (/ˌtɔːrvoʊˈsɔːrəs/) is a genus of large megalosaurine theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 148 million years ago during the Callovian to Tithonian ages of the late Middle and Late Jurassic period in what is now Colorado, Portugal, Germany, and possibly England, Spain, Tanzania, and Uruguay. It contains two currently recognized species, Torvosaurus tanneri and Torvosaurus gurneyi, plus a third unnamed species from Germany.[1]
Torvosaurus | |
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Mounted T. tanneri skeletal reconstruction, Museum of Ancient Life | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Family: | †Megalosauridae |
Subfamily: | †Megalosaurinae |
Genus: | †Torvosaurus Galton & Jensen, 1979 |
Type species | |
†Torvosaurus tanneri Galton & Jensen, 1979 | |
Other species | |
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Synonyms | |
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In 1979 the type species Torvosaurus tanneri was named: it was a large, heavily built, bipedal carnivore, that could grow to a length of about 10 meters (33 ft). T. tanneri was among the largest carnivores of its time, together with Epanterias and Saurophaganax (which could both be synonyms for Allosaurus). Specimens referred to Torvosaurus gurneyi were initially claimed to be up to 12 meters (39 ft) long, but later shown to be smaller.[2] Based on bone morphology Torvosaurus is thought to have had short but very powerful arms.