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Archive 1 |
I changed the translation on "άλλο" (allo), since it doesn't mean "strange" or different, but "another" ("anderer" in German, "ellers" in Norvegian). (unsigned)
If you look at this revision - http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Allosaurus&oldid=30169764 - under the 'Findings' section of the article the second and third paragraphs are messed up. The end of the final sentence of paragraph two and the beginning of the first sentece of paragraph three are omitted, and the paragraphs are separated by two rows of dashes.
The paragraphs/sentences were complete in the December 2, 2005 revisions; the error appears in the first revision on December 4, 2005. I fixed this by repasting the lines from the last December 2, 2005 revision. If this was an accident that occurred while editing that section, please feel free to edit them as originally intended. -- Slow Graffiti 06:47, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
I just noticed the same thing occurred within the first paragraph of 'Classification and history' - nearly the whole paragraph was missing, but randomly. All that remained was the first half of the first sentence, and the last words of the last sentence. This error appeared on December 4 as well, and the December 2 revision was used to restore the paragraph. -- Slow Graffiti 07:17, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
I discovered the following hidden within the article. It seems to be somebody's version of the article. I thought that the Talk page was a better place for it. Jimp 04:20, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
Allosaurus was a huge carnivore. Allosaurus probably ate herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurs and iguanadons. It could kill medium-sized sauropods, and sick or injured large saurpods like apatosaurs and others of its kind. Allosaurus may have been a scavenger. Allosaurus probably had competition with Ceratosaurus, though Allosaurus was much larger.
Bones of big sauropods, like Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus have Allosaurus tooth marks. A huge sauropod was most likely to big for even one Allosaurus to kill, so scientists think Allosuarus probably hunted in packs to kill such big Plant-eaters. But maybe Allosaurus could’ve only gone after injured or sick dinosaurs, not risking being killed by a strong and healthy Sauropod, or a whack of a tail.
A recent study found that Allosaurus’ powerful bite was not in the musles of its jaws, but its neck and reinforced skull. It would gape and cleave flesh from its prey by using its powerfully-muscled neck to wield its impact-resistant skull like an axe. This would have done far more damage than simply opening and closing its jaws.
Allosaurus was a Carnosaur, and his intelligence was high. His EQ ( Enephalization Quotient, or how its brain measured to its body) was about 1.9 EQ.
In 1998, an Allosaurus nest was discovered in Wyoming. Fossils of adults and young were found, along with tons of Herbivore bones. The bones had teeth marks from young and from grown Allosaurs. This shows that Allosaurs may have brought food back to the nests to feed to their young.
It’s not determined that Allosaurs were able to communicate vocally besides a hiss. But because their closest living relatives, birds and crocodiles can, it probably means Allosaurus could too. It’s certain that Allosaurus used visual communication some what. The crest on its head is proof of this. Its crest was probably colorful. Communicating by bobbing the head was probably part of courting and telling of enemies. Showing its massive teeth was probably another way of warding of threats.
During the Mesozoic era, the climate was warmer, the seasons were mild, the sea level was higher, and there was no polar ice. In the mid-Jurassic, Laurasia and Gondwanaland started forming because Pangaea was breaking apart. By the late Jurassic, the spreading of Laurasia and Gondwanaland was almost complete. The climate of the Jurassic period was hot and dry, but later changed, with no polar ice, warm and moist, and very much flooding in vast areas. Pterosaurs starting flying in the sky.
The seas during the Jurassic period were home to tons of coral reefs, fish, ichthyosaurs, (fishlike reptiles), plesiosaurs, giant marine crocodiles, ammonites, squid, sharks, and rays.
Triassic plant lines continued. Many palm-like trees, called Cycads were around. There was also many seed ferns, gingkos, and conifers in the subtropical forests.
So far, more than sixty complete and partial Allosaurus skeletons have been found. They’ve been found in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and possibly Portugal and Tanzania.
In one quarry here in Utah, remains of at least 44 Allosaurs were found mixed together! The teeth of Allosaurus are the most common remains of theropods from the late Jurassic in the American West.
In 1991 a 95% complete Allosaurus skeleton was found, and was later named Big Al. the skeleton was excavated near Shell, Wyoming by the Museum of the Rockies and the University of Wyoming Geological Museum. It was originally discovered by a Swiss team led by Kirby Siber. They later found a second Allosaurus, named “Big Al Two”. It’s the best preserved skeleton of Allosaurus yet.
User:Maior1 has repeatedly added the image Image:A maximus.jpg by Joe Tucciarone to the article. The image was marked for deletion becuase it did not have the correct copyright status, yet this tag has been removed. Mr. Tucciarone's own website, which Maior1 linked to and apparently misinterpreted, allows for only paid commercial use of his images. Maior1 has provided no evidence that he provided Mr. Tucciarone with any kind of payment for the image's use on Wikipedia. Maior1 said on the image page: "Fair use rationale: Picture of an allosauras belongs on the allosaurus article. No further explanation required". This is in no way the case. Unless that image was part of a news story or press kit, as is the case with stills from movies like Walking With Dinosaurs, images are the SOLE property of the artist who created them. Images are not simply public domain just because they are used in a relavant discussion. If one of my images appeared in a dinosaur book, without my consent, even if that book was given away free, I would fight for compensation, and all the other paleoartists I know would do the same. This image must be deleted, and if Maior1 persists in adding it to the allosaurus page, action should be taken against him. I don't have a strong opinion on many things, but artist's rights are one exception. Either get permission from Joe Tucciarone and replace the "marked for deletion" copyright tag, or have the image deleted. Dinoguy2 14:27, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
"Allosurus ... was named 'different lizard' because its vertebrae were different from those of all other dinosaurs." -- Should this be "different from those of all other dinosaurs known at that time"?, or are its vertebrae still considered distinctive (in which case we want a note on just what's so darn distinctive about them.) -- Writtenonsand 18:28, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
Loewen (2004) performed an analysis of all of specimens of Allosaurus found in the Morrison Formation to determine how many Allosaurus species exist, and he concluded that only two species of Allosaurus are valid: Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877 and Allosaurus "jimmadseni" Chure, 2000. He concluded also that Antrodemus may not be a specimen of Allosaurus after all, since no information on its time period and provenance were provided, and that Saurophaganax is a distinct genus. The synonymy of Allosaurus from North America is as follows:
Allosaurus Marsh, 1877
=Creosaurus Marsh, 1878
=Epanterias Cope, 1878
=Labrosaurus Marsh, 1879
Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877
= Creosaurus atrox Marsh, 1878
= Allosaurus atrox (Marsh, 1878) Paul, 1987
= Antrodemus atrox (Marsh, 1878) Gilmore, 1920
= Allosaurus lucaris Marsh, 1878
= Epanterias amplexus Cope, 1878
= Labrosaurus lucaris (Marsh, 1878) Marsh, 1879
= Labrosaurus ferox Marsh, 1884
= Allosaurus ferox Marsh, 1896
= Labrosaurus fragilis (Marsh, 1877) Nopsca, 1901
= Antrodemus lucaris (Marsh, 1878) Hay, 1902
= Antrodemus fragilis (Marsh, 1877) Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957
= Antrodemus ferox (Marsh, 1896) Ostrom and McIntosh, 1966
= Allosaurus amplexus (Cope, 1878) Paul, 1988
= Allosaurus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Glut, 1997
= Laelaps trihedrodon Cope, 1877
= Dryptosaurus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Hay, 1902
= Creosaurus trigonodon (Cope, 1877) Osborn, 1931 [sic]
= Antrodemus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Kuhn, 1939
= Hypsirophus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Cope vide Chure, 2001
= Allosaurus whitei Pickering, 1996 [nomen nudum]
= Allosaurus carnegeii Levin, 2003 [nomen nudum]
Allosaurus "jimmadseni" [nomen ex dissertationae]
This analysis confirms that Creosaurus, Epanterias, and Labrosaurus are synonymous with Allosaurus, and the type species of each genus are different growth stages or diseased individuals of Allosaurus. Therefore, remove Camptonotus, Saurophaganax and Antrodemus from synonymy with Allosaurus and merge the Epanterias page with Allosaurus, as Loewen demonstrated Epanterias to be conspecific with Allosaurus fragilis. Also, reomove Allosaurus atrox from the species list under Allosaurus because it is intraspecific within A. fragilis
Loewen, M. A., 2004. VARIATION AND STRATIGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF ALLOSAURUS WITHIN THE LATE JURASSIC MORRISON FORMATION. 2004 Denver Annual Meeting: 226-4. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_80940.htm
My name is Vahe Demirjian.
Does Smith (1998) synonymize Allosaurus atrox (Marsh, 1878) [originally Creosaurus] and A. amplexus (Cope, 1878) [originally Epanterias] with A. fragilis? If so, Allosaurus atrox should be removed from the taxobox and Epanterias is a junior synonym of Allosaurus fragilis.
D. K. Smith. 1998. A morphometric analysis of Allosaurus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(1):126-142. 72.194.116.63 17:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian 09.37 20 February 2007
From what I had heard, the astragalus discovered in Victoria has been assigned to several different animals, from allosaurs to alvarezsaurs to giant ornithomimosaurs. Unless recent evidence has finally proven once and for all that it DID belong to an allosaur, it would be nice to at least mention that it has been referred to other animals, too. 71.217.98.158 00:16, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Even if it was an allosaur, how did it get to Austrila?
I've heard mention of a specimen (specimens?) of Allosaurus with shock damage to the gastralia, giving rise to the "Allosaurus belly flop" idea. Can anyone cite which specimen this is please? Also, does anyone know if there has been an attempt to calculate the speed of Allosaurus based on the estimated weight and severety of the fractures? Thanks, Mistyschism 08:28, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Support:
Comments:
A lot is needed; the format is very archaic, and very unlike what we've come to use. Here's a quick outline based on what we've been doing:
J. Spencer 14:15, 1 August 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to avoid any specific references to Daniel Chure's dissertation, valuable and pertinent as it is (I wouldn't have bothered doing this article without it), because a) access to regular users, who probably don't feel like dropping on this, is limited; and b) it's unpublished and technically not peer-reviewed, at least not in the traditional sense (although anyone who has done a thesis or dissertation knows that there has been quite a bit of review from others by the time it is accepted). I am well aware that what it contains is open knowledge at this point, so the possibility of interfering with a publication embargo is something we no longer have any control over, but I think the other two reasons are strong enough to keep it out except for general statements. J. Spencer 04:23, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
My understanding is that Allosaurus was a pack wight. Is this true? Cameron Nedland 16:30, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
70 foot diplodocus vs. 35 foot allosaurus
I don't know about you, but I'd put my money on the sauropod. If these guys were doing the hunting alone, we would be finding skeletons of theropods littering the ground everywhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metalraptor ( talk • contribs) 22:44, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
I agree with you on that, Dinoguy. Better wait till the big guy trips and get an infected foot, easier to take down. But there is evidence of bites on fully grown animals, diseased or not. Anyway, all I'm saying is that we provide both sides of the argument, like we do with the T-rex, hunter or scavenger. Some people say one side, other people say otherwise. And before people start getting angry, and say that there is no evidence, remember that some debates (t-rex, scavenger or hunter for example) many people believe there is no evidence for the other side. Better yet, lets leave it ambiguous, and just mention in passing the two theories. There's not a ton of evidence that Allosaurus and other theropods (see Deinonychus) were big, dumb lizards, and there isn't a ton that says they were pack hunters. Lets stop basing dinosaur behavior on this one paper. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metalraptor ( talk • contribs) 19:08, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
I found a source that provides information on weather or not Allosaurus was a "pack hunter". According to the book The Complete Dinosaur that i recently found Allosaurus lived (and hunted) in groups. I am going to add this information to the article.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 00:35, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
Sorry I will change it to say Allosaurus may have hunted in packs. Since I didn’t read it completely I mistakenly believed and assumed that it said that Allosaurus lived together in packs and that most scientists believe that they definitely were pack hunters rather than they may have formed packs.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 02:08, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
Done i changed it.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 02:30, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
J, you've done a wonderful job cleaning up and adding huge amounts of content to this article. As always, I'm impressed. Thank you so much for your hard work. I have some questions and suggestions for possible improvement.
The sentence containing "each maxilla (the main tooth-bearing bones in the upper jaw) had between 14 and at least 17 teeth" makes no sense to me. How can it have between 14-17 teeth and at least 17 teeth? I thought about changing it to "at least 14 teeth and as many as 18 teeth", but figured I'd consult with you first. Is a specific maximum number mentioned in the reference? If it is, I say we should go with that number.
"These include Marsh's Creosaurus[21] and Labrosaurus (1879),[33] and Cope's Epanterias.[34]" Why does Labrosaurus need a date by it? Were there two different Labrosaurus specimens described by Marsh? If not, the date here might be superfluous.
"as of 2006, of the 73 individual dinosaurs that at minimum must be present to account for the bones, 46 are Allosaurus" makes no sense to me. I don't know how to fix it, though. What is being said here? Something like "of the 73 individual dinosaurs found there, 46 are Allosaurus..."?
"The period since Madsen's monograph has been marked by a great expansion in studies dealing with topics concerning Allosaurus in life (paleobiological and paleoecological topics). Such studies have covered topics including skeletal variation,[42][43] growth,[44][45] skull construction[46] and other biomechanical topics,[18] hunting methods,[47][46] the possibility of gregarious living and parental care,[48][49] and vision.[50] Reanalysis of old material (particularly of large 'allosaur' specimens),[10][51] new discoveries in Portugal,[52][53] and several very complete new specimens[54][16][55] have also contributed to the growing knowledge base." This paragraph is overcited. It is only three sentences long, but has eighteen citations! One citation is probably good enough for each example of study topic, which would reduce the number of citations to ten. The "Skull" section also has several instances of multiple citations. These could also be pared down.
"with A. europaeus not yet named and A. maximus assigned ..." If A. europaeus hasn't been named yet, should it appear in italics?
"There is also an A. maximus in Paul (1988), but it is a typographical error for A. amplexus." That's quite a typo! How does one accidentally type "maximus" when "amplexus" is meant? This probably needs more than one citation, if possible. Also, since it's a typo, and not a described name, should it be in italics?
" "A. agilis", seen in Zittel, 1887, and Osborn, 1912, is a typographical error for A. fragilis." Are typographical errors considered described?
Why is Labrosaurus ferox discussed twice, first in the invalid species paragraph, then in the invalid genera paragraph? I think this info should be combined.
"Allosaurus valens is a typo for Antrodemus valens accidentally used by Friedrich von Huene in 1932" Again, are italics appropriate here? For names that are only typos?
"L. fragilis is a typographical error by Marsh (1896) for Labrosaurus ferox" Ditto; also maybe redundant with the earlier paragraphs?
You've done wonderful work, and I'd "fix" some of these issues myself, but I'm not sure how much really needs fixing, and I hate for you to have to re-correct stuff, so I only fixed grammar and junk. Firsfron of Ronchester 20:16, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
By and large, I'm finished adding things. There was a bit more in the brain article, speculating on behavior, extinction, and physiology, but I thought that it was getting pretty far afield, so I left it out. There are also sizes for endocasts, but the articles neglect to mention the size of the Allosaurus, a useful bit of context. I'm sure there are bits and pieces of information all over that could be added, but hey. J. Spencer 04:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
This sentence: "In 1988 Gregory S. Paul proposed that the family Allosauridae was ancestral to the Tyrannosauridae (and thus would be paraphyletic),[29] but this has been rejected, with tyrannosaurids identified as members of a separate branch of theropods, the Coelurosauria.[30]" seems problematic to me. I've got several old reference books from the 1960s which claim Allosaurus was "directly ancestral" to Tyrannosaurus, which indicates to me that Paul wasn't the first person to suggest a direct ancestral relationship. And while it's true the article doesn't actually state Paul was the first, it doesn't clarify that this wasn't the first time such a relationship had been proposed. I think this section needs further clarification; maybe I'm being overly picky. If so, feel free to swat me. Firsfron of Ronchester 01:09, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm tidying this article for FAC, and although I don't mind the "Big Al" image, I think I'd have a hard time justifying it as fair-use, since the article already has a lot of illustrations. Any thoughts? J. Spencer 16:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Is that from 15th birthday to 16th birthday? or from 14½ to 15½? In a 366-day leap year or a regular year? Or, using calculus, the instantaneous slope of the growth curve on the 15th birthday, based on a Julian year, or some other year? (unsigned)
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This image on the left is labeled as the mounted AMNH 5753 itself, but based on the ruler like object on the right of the image, the signature on the left part of the base, and the fact that the base looks quite different from the base on this picture which is the mount for certain [2], has me wondering whether that picture is really just of a scale model, like this image of a scale model of mounted two Tyrannosaurus on the right? FunkMonk ( talk) 20:43, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
Why aren't there any references at the beginning of the article? There isn't one single reference. Lord of Moria (Avicenna) Talk Contribs 19:21, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
The current image is most likely going to be deleted, since it was from Morguefile.com, and therefore didn't have a usable license. I've searched for images we could use instead, so on the right are two similar images from Commons, but which have a bit of the lower jaw cropped out, and noisy backgrounds. Then one where the arms are showing. And then one from Flickr, which can be cropped, but is a bit dark: [3] What do people think? FunkMonk ( talk) 17:32, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
There is a substantial difference between "short toothed" and "long toothed" Allosaurs, as illustrated in the article's source #42, and something I'd personally want elaborated on. That might just be me though...many of the theropod pages need to be cleaned but expanded- especially better known animals like Dilophosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Torvosaurus, etc.- but I don't want to start overhauling this stuff without the input of the established persons around here (just f.y.i. the Allosaurus article is NOT in need of expansion, IMO) Forescore68 ( talk) 22:21, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
Some older books give the meaning of 'Allosaurus' as 'Leaping lizard'. Does anyone know where this comes from? Is it still a viable alternative meaning or was it an error? CFLeon ( talk) 20:20, 20 June 2010 (UTC)
I'm a reader only, never editor, and gleefully perused the Allosaurus article as a feature. The super enjoyable wording of the feature, which was as follows, "... it has long attracted attention outside paleontological circles, and has been a lead dinosaur in several films and documentaries...," I found enchanting and was disappointed to find that the article doesn't actually read that way. I humbly request that this wording be considered for more or less, permanent placement in the article.
I had to chat my way over to this page, so I'm not sure I'll notice if someone responds to this, but I have some hope that I may one day find that the article casts the Allosaur as the superstar it really is. Thanks for your attention.
sincerely, from Lisa, Torriblezone —Preceding unsigned comment added by Torriblezone ( talk • contribs) 02:23, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
Nice to see this on the main page. But I have a comment about the image File:Allosaurus size comparison.svg and the associated caption, which reads The size range of Allosaurus and Epanterias (brown), compared with a human. It strikes me that there are two possible colours there that qualify as brown (the largest and the second smallest, fragillis), and I assumed that the largest dino, coloured chestnut to my eye, was one of the allosaurs. Could the image be recoloured to remove possible confusion? Sabine's Sunbird talk 17:21, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
I' ve just added a new cultural reference of the allosaurus and that is featured in the film Land of the Lost. -- Harvey Dos Caras ( talk) 11:12, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
Why is the allosaurus in the 1940 film Fantasia excluded? Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:57, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
If that is a Tyrannosaurus, then not only is the number of fingers wrong, but also a major anachronism has been committed, since the Stegosaurus (the prey of the allosaurus) belongs in the Jurassic period, while the Tyrannosaurus belongs to the Cretaceous. Rather than saying it must be a T. rex with the wrong number of fingers, in the wrong geological period, would it not be simpler to say it is an Allosaurus? See Occam's Razor. Das Baz, aka Erudil 18:06, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
FunkMonk, it is not logical to say a principle of logic that was developed and published centuries ago is "original" research. The principle you propose, that one should not be allowed to think for oneself but only to parrot what somebody else has said, sounds like a formula for total mental stagnation. Das Baz, aka Erudil 16:47, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
If so, then Wikipedia is fighting against, not working for, the advancement of human knowledge. Such a principle that you cannot think, only parrot, is an outrage against Epistemology. Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:56, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
A citation says it is a Tyrannosaurus with the wrong number of fingers in the wrong Era (Jurassic). Common Sense and logic say it is an Allosaurus. The citation trumps the common sense and logic. And this is what is wrong with Wikipedia. Das Baz, aka Erudil 18:00, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Thank you, Martyniuk. This is getting more complicated than I thought it would be. So I'm giving it a rest for a while. Maybe I shall return to the matter when I have more time. Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:59, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I just noticed that the size diagram has been featured on Dinosaur Tracking. It's been a while since I looked at this image, it hasn't been modified since 2007. Since then we have become a bit more strict on what sources we use and I noticed that we are still using Mortimers estimates on the DML as reference for the 9.7m and 12m specimens. Should we review this? Maybe we should emphasize that thses arn't published? Also the silhouettes are based on Hartman's Allosaurus skeletal; If I remember correctly someone got permision to use some of them ages ago. I might check with him to see if this is still ok. Steveoc 86 ( talk) 15:43, 14 July 2011 (UTC)
MMartyniuk ( talk) 17:00, 14 July 2011 (UTC)
This article states that Allosaurus averaged 28 ft. in length. I've always been under the impression that the animal was roughly the size of Tyrannosaurus. I mean, I've been next to a mounted Allosaurus skeleton before and it was rather small, but even then I just assumed that it wasn't a fully grown individual. What happened to the 40-foot allosaur in all my books?
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Allosaurus Jaws Steveoc86.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on November 12, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-11-12. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng { chat} 19:21, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
'An artist's rendition of the dinosaur genus, Allosaurus, with it's jaws open fully, based on the research of paleontologist Robert T. Bakker. Allosaurus was an active predator of large animals, and probably had the ability to open its jaws extremely wide. Studies suggest that it used its skull like a hatchet against prey, attacking open-mouthed, slashing flesh with its teeth, and tearing it away without splintering bones.' Steveoc 86 ( talk) 01:29, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
Rauhut (2011) reexamined the holotype of Allosaurus tendagurensis and concluded that this taxon lacks any characters to permit referral to Allosaurus and represents a nomen dubium possibly referrable to Carcharodontosauridae.
There is no reason to believe that Antrodemus is conspecific with A. fragilis because the holotype (USNM 218) lacks distinguishing characters to distinguish it from other large bodied theropods from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Until USNM 218 is compared with other carnosaurs, it would be appropriate to consider Antrodemus an indeterminate non-coelurosaur tetauran.
Rauhut, Oliver W. M. (2011). "Theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Special Papers in Palaeontology 86: 195-239. 68.4.61.168 ( talk) 15:30, 12 January 2012 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian
The large predatory theropod in Conan Doyle's novel has not been confirmed as an Allosaurus. While it was identified with certainty in the 1925 film adaptation, in the novel it was just a suggestion as to what it may have been. It could also very well have been a species unknown to the fossil record or even a present-day descendant of a fossil taxon. I highly doubt it was a carnosaur of any sort, the description of its "bloated, toad-like face" made me picture a very large abelisaurid, and in my opinion that's what it was. The article could instead explain that it "may" have been an Allosaurus and that the genus was indeed mentioned, but concluding as a fact that the theropod was an allosaur doesn't suggest an especially good article. Could someone a little more knowledgable change the article to reflect this, please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.130.109 ( talk) 22:32, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
Whatever. My point is that the dinosaurs appearing simply seemed to be generic theropods, with little evidence supporting the notion that they were Allosaurus (and yes, this is the same guy who started this section). -- 24.36.130.109 ( talk) 20:55, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
This article states that the average Allosaurus fragillis specimen was 8.5 m, however, using lengths from the theropod database http://archosaur.us/theropoddatabase/Carnosauria.htm#Allosaurusfragilis I got an average size from this species: USNM 7437, 6.8-7.7 m (Skeleton: skull 682 mm, femur 770 mm) UUVP 6000/DINO 2560, 8.8 m (Skeleton: skull 850-880 mm, femur 880 mm) AMH 666, 8.8 m (Skull, 885 mm) USNM 8423, 8.05 m (femur 805 mm) AMNH 600, 8.1 m (skull, 810 mm) AMNH 680, 10 m (femur 1.008 m) NMMNH P-26083 10.4 m (femur 1.04 m, tibia 910 mm) Using the provided figures, the estimate for average length yields a length of 8.8 m, not 8.5 m. PD: According to Scott Hartman (known for his extremely accurate skeletals), UUVP 6000 is not 8.5 but 8.8 m, his skeleton can be seen here: http://scotthartman.deviantart.com/art/Allosaur-comparison-173333349 -- Dinoexpert ( talk) 05:06, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
}I agree, but keep in mind that assuming 8.5 m is average is very risky too, and I cannot find the source where 8.5 m is established as average, can you provide me a link?-- Dinoexpert ( talk) 16:14, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
It seems all recent studies remove it from Allosaurus. Does it belong in the taxobox then? FunkMonk ( talk) 20:51, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
Citation needed. (← This is a disruptive edit that clearly demonstrates vandalism and this user's IP address should be immediately blocked, as per user Denniss' subjective standard for what constitutes vandalism.) 68.100.138.56 ( talk) 02:21, 1 March 2013 (UTC)
I think it should be included in the popular culture section, since the protagonist is an anthropomorphic allosaurus — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.83.132.246 ( talk) 15:13, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
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Should these be merged into here? FunkMonk ( talk) 07:28, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Of course remove the trivial statements of its depictions in media, but should the note about Allosaurus being the state fossil of Utah stay or be placed elsewhere? Gabeluna27 ( talk) 06:43, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
The following from Chure and Loewen's description of A. jimmadseni suggest that the article will need to be revised heavily in the future:
We currently recognize only three species in genus Allosaurus: Allosaurus fragilis and Allosaurus jimmadseni in North America and Allosaurus europaeus in Europe. [...] Other previously named species of Allosaurus are invalid, including the recently named Allosaurus lucasi (Dalman, 2014), and are referable to either Allosaurus fragilis or are Allosaurus species indeterminate. These findings will be addressed in a subsequent review of species of Allosaurus, which is in preparation.
Lythronaxargestes ( talk | contribs) 19:09, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
A bit off-topic but tomorrow I think I'll look into updating the scale chart. I'd like to separate Big Al from the A. fragilis silhouettes, add headings for both species, and maybe add in the type specimens of both species. I'm a little reluctant to include A. europaeus because it's basically just a skull and total body estimates would be very imprecise and potentially OR. Steveoc 86 ( talk) 00:29, 25 January 2020 (UTC)
Any reason we split this species off into its own article? User:Dunkleosteus77 | push to talk 06:35, 17 February 2020 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 |
I changed the translation on "άλλο" (allo), since it doesn't mean "strange" or different, but "another" ("anderer" in German, "ellers" in Norvegian). (unsigned)
If you look at this revision - http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Allosaurus&oldid=30169764 - under the 'Findings' section of the article the second and third paragraphs are messed up. The end of the final sentence of paragraph two and the beginning of the first sentece of paragraph three are omitted, and the paragraphs are separated by two rows of dashes.
The paragraphs/sentences were complete in the December 2, 2005 revisions; the error appears in the first revision on December 4, 2005. I fixed this by repasting the lines from the last December 2, 2005 revision. If this was an accident that occurred while editing that section, please feel free to edit them as originally intended. -- Slow Graffiti 06:47, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
I just noticed the same thing occurred within the first paragraph of 'Classification and history' - nearly the whole paragraph was missing, but randomly. All that remained was the first half of the first sentence, and the last words of the last sentence. This error appeared on December 4 as well, and the December 2 revision was used to restore the paragraph. -- Slow Graffiti 07:17, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
I discovered the following hidden within the article. It seems to be somebody's version of the article. I thought that the Talk page was a better place for it. Jimp 04:20, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
Allosaurus was a huge carnivore. Allosaurus probably ate herbivore dinosaurs, like stegosaurs and iguanadons. It could kill medium-sized sauropods, and sick or injured large saurpods like apatosaurs and others of its kind. Allosaurus may have been a scavenger. Allosaurus probably had competition with Ceratosaurus, though Allosaurus was much larger.
Bones of big sauropods, like Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Apatosaurus have Allosaurus tooth marks. A huge sauropod was most likely to big for even one Allosaurus to kill, so scientists think Allosuarus probably hunted in packs to kill such big Plant-eaters. But maybe Allosaurus could’ve only gone after injured or sick dinosaurs, not risking being killed by a strong and healthy Sauropod, or a whack of a tail.
A recent study found that Allosaurus’ powerful bite was not in the musles of its jaws, but its neck and reinforced skull. It would gape and cleave flesh from its prey by using its powerfully-muscled neck to wield its impact-resistant skull like an axe. This would have done far more damage than simply opening and closing its jaws.
Allosaurus was a Carnosaur, and his intelligence was high. His EQ ( Enephalization Quotient, or how its brain measured to its body) was about 1.9 EQ.
In 1998, an Allosaurus nest was discovered in Wyoming. Fossils of adults and young were found, along with tons of Herbivore bones. The bones had teeth marks from young and from grown Allosaurs. This shows that Allosaurs may have brought food back to the nests to feed to their young.
It’s not determined that Allosaurs were able to communicate vocally besides a hiss. But because their closest living relatives, birds and crocodiles can, it probably means Allosaurus could too. It’s certain that Allosaurus used visual communication some what. The crest on its head is proof of this. Its crest was probably colorful. Communicating by bobbing the head was probably part of courting and telling of enemies. Showing its massive teeth was probably another way of warding of threats.
During the Mesozoic era, the climate was warmer, the seasons were mild, the sea level was higher, and there was no polar ice. In the mid-Jurassic, Laurasia and Gondwanaland started forming because Pangaea was breaking apart. By the late Jurassic, the spreading of Laurasia and Gondwanaland was almost complete. The climate of the Jurassic period was hot and dry, but later changed, with no polar ice, warm and moist, and very much flooding in vast areas. Pterosaurs starting flying in the sky.
The seas during the Jurassic period were home to tons of coral reefs, fish, ichthyosaurs, (fishlike reptiles), plesiosaurs, giant marine crocodiles, ammonites, squid, sharks, and rays.
Triassic plant lines continued. Many palm-like trees, called Cycads were around. There was also many seed ferns, gingkos, and conifers in the subtropical forests.
So far, more than sixty complete and partial Allosaurus skeletons have been found. They’ve been found in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and possibly Portugal and Tanzania.
In one quarry here in Utah, remains of at least 44 Allosaurs were found mixed together! The teeth of Allosaurus are the most common remains of theropods from the late Jurassic in the American West.
In 1991 a 95% complete Allosaurus skeleton was found, and was later named Big Al. the skeleton was excavated near Shell, Wyoming by the Museum of the Rockies and the University of Wyoming Geological Museum. It was originally discovered by a Swiss team led by Kirby Siber. They later found a second Allosaurus, named “Big Al Two”. It’s the best preserved skeleton of Allosaurus yet.
User:Maior1 has repeatedly added the image Image:A maximus.jpg by Joe Tucciarone to the article. The image was marked for deletion becuase it did not have the correct copyright status, yet this tag has been removed. Mr. Tucciarone's own website, which Maior1 linked to and apparently misinterpreted, allows for only paid commercial use of his images. Maior1 has provided no evidence that he provided Mr. Tucciarone with any kind of payment for the image's use on Wikipedia. Maior1 said on the image page: "Fair use rationale: Picture of an allosauras belongs on the allosaurus article. No further explanation required". This is in no way the case. Unless that image was part of a news story or press kit, as is the case with stills from movies like Walking With Dinosaurs, images are the SOLE property of the artist who created them. Images are not simply public domain just because they are used in a relavant discussion. If one of my images appeared in a dinosaur book, without my consent, even if that book was given away free, I would fight for compensation, and all the other paleoartists I know would do the same. This image must be deleted, and if Maior1 persists in adding it to the allosaurus page, action should be taken against him. I don't have a strong opinion on many things, but artist's rights are one exception. Either get permission from Joe Tucciarone and replace the "marked for deletion" copyright tag, or have the image deleted. Dinoguy2 14:27, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
"Allosurus ... was named 'different lizard' because its vertebrae were different from those of all other dinosaurs." -- Should this be "different from those of all other dinosaurs known at that time"?, or are its vertebrae still considered distinctive (in which case we want a note on just what's so darn distinctive about them.) -- Writtenonsand 18:28, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
Loewen (2004) performed an analysis of all of specimens of Allosaurus found in the Morrison Formation to determine how many Allosaurus species exist, and he concluded that only two species of Allosaurus are valid: Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877 and Allosaurus "jimmadseni" Chure, 2000. He concluded also that Antrodemus may not be a specimen of Allosaurus after all, since no information on its time period and provenance were provided, and that Saurophaganax is a distinct genus. The synonymy of Allosaurus from North America is as follows:
Allosaurus Marsh, 1877
=Creosaurus Marsh, 1878
=Epanterias Cope, 1878
=Labrosaurus Marsh, 1879
Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877
= Creosaurus atrox Marsh, 1878
= Allosaurus atrox (Marsh, 1878) Paul, 1987
= Antrodemus atrox (Marsh, 1878) Gilmore, 1920
= Allosaurus lucaris Marsh, 1878
= Epanterias amplexus Cope, 1878
= Labrosaurus lucaris (Marsh, 1878) Marsh, 1879
= Labrosaurus ferox Marsh, 1884
= Allosaurus ferox Marsh, 1896
= Labrosaurus fragilis (Marsh, 1877) Nopsca, 1901
= Antrodemus lucaris (Marsh, 1878) Hay, 1902
= Antrodemus fragilis (Marsh, 1877) Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957
= Antrodemus ferox (Marsh, 1896) Ostrom and McIntosh, 1966
= Allosaurus amplexus (Cope, 1878) Paul, 1988
= Allosaurus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Glut, 1997
= Laelaps trihedrodon Cope, 1877
= Dryptosaurus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Hay, 1902
= Creosaurus trigonodon (Cope, 1877) Osborn, 1931 [sic]
= Antrodemus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Kuhn, 1939
= Hypsirophus trihedrodon (Cope, 1877) Cope vide Chure, 2001
= Allosaurus whitei Pickering, 1996 [nomen nudum]
= Allosaurus carnegeii Levin, 2003 [nomen nudum]
Allosaurus "jimmadseni" [nomen ex dissertationae]
This analysis confirms that Creosaurus, Epanterias, and Labrosaurus are synonymous with Allosaurus, and the type species of each genus are different growth stages or diseased individuals of Allosaurus. Therefore, remove Camptonotus, Saurophaganax and Antrodemus from synonymy with Allosaurus and merge the Epanterias page with Allosaurus, as Loewen demonstrated Epanterias to be conspecific with Allosaurus fragilis. Also, reomove Allosaurus atrox from the species list under Allosaurus because it is intraspecific within A. fragilis
Loewen, M. A., 2004. VARIATION AND STRATIGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF ALLOSAURUS WITHIN THE LATE JURASSIC MORRISON FORMATION. 2004 Denver Annual Meeting: 226-4. http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/finalprogram/abstract_80940.htm
My name is Vahe Demirjian.
Does Smith (1998) synonymize Allosaurus atrox (Marsh, 1878) [originally Creosaurus] and A. amplexus (Cope, 1878) [originally Epanterias] with A. fragilis? If so, Allosaurus atrox should be removed from the taxobox and Epanterias is a junior synonym of Allosaurus fragilis.
D. K. Smith. 1998. A morphometric analysis of Allosaurus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(1):126-142. 72.194.116.63 17:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian 09.37 20 February 2007
From what I had heard, the astragalus discovered in Victoria has been assigned to several different animals, from allosaurs to alvarezsaurs to giant ornithomimosaurs. Unless recent evidence has finally proven once and for all that it DID belong to an allosaur, it would be nice to at least mention that it has been referred to other animals, too. 71.217.98.158 00:16, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Even if it was an allosaur, how did it get to Austrila?
I've heard mention of a specimen (specimens?) of Allosaurus with shock damage to the gastralia, giving rise to the "Allosaurus belly flop" idea. Can anyone cite which specimen this is please? Also, does anyone know if there has been an attempt to calculate the speed of Allosaurus based on the estimated weight and severety of the fractures? Thanks, Mistyschism 08:28, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Support:
Comments:
A lot is needed; the format is very archaic, and very unlike what we've come to use. Here's a quick outline based on what we've been doing:
J. Spencer 14:15, 1 August 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to avoid any specific references to Daniel Chure's dissertation, valuable and pertinent as it is (I wouldn't have bothered doing this article without it), because a) access to regular users, who probably don't feel like dropping on this, is limited; and b) it's unpublished and technically not peer-reviewed, at least not in the traditional sense (although anyone who has done a thesis or dissertation knows that there has been quite a bit of review from others by the time it is accepted). I am well aware that what it contains is open knowledge at this point, so the possibility of interfering with a publication embargo is something we no longer have any control over, but I think the other two reasons are strong enough to keep it out except for general statements. J. Spencer 04:23, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
My understanding is that Allosaurus was a pack wight. Is this true? Cameron Nedland 16:30, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
70 foot diplodocus vs. 35 foot allosaurus
I don't know about you, but I'd put my money on the sauropod. If these guys were doing the hunting alone, we would be finding skeletons of theropods littering the ground everywhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metalraptor ( talk • contribs) 22:44, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
I agree with you on that, Dinoguy. Better wait till the big guy trips and get an infected foot, easier to take down. But there is evidence of bites on fully grown animals, diseased or not. Anyway, all I'm saying is that we provide both sides of the argument, like we do with the T-rex, hunter or scavenger. Some people say one side, other people say otherwise. And before people start getting angry, and say that there is no evidence, remember that some debates (t-rex, scavenger or hunter for example) many people believe there is no evidence for the other side. Better yet, lets leave it ambiguous, and just mention in passing the two theories. There's not a ton of evidence that Allosaurus and other theropods (see Deinonychus) were big, dumb lizards, and there isn't a ton that says they were pack hunters. Lets stop basing dinosaur behavior on this one paper. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metalraptor ( talk • contribs) 19:08, 19 June 2008 (UTC)
I found a source that provides information on weather or not Allosaurus was a "pack hunter". According to the book The Complete Dinosaur that i recently found Allosaurus lived (and hunted) in groups. I am going to add this information to the article.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 00:35, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
Sorry I will change it to say Allosaurus may have hunted in packs. Since I didn’t read it completely I mistakenly believed and assumed that it said that Allosaurus lived together in packs and that most scientists believe that they definitely were pack hunters rather than they may have formed packs.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 02:08, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
Done i changed it.-- Apollonius 1236 ( talk) 02:30, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
J, you've done a wonderful job cleaning up and adding huge amounts of content to this article. As always, I'm impressed. Thank you so much for your hard work. I have some questions and suggestions for possible improvement.
The sentence containing "each maxilla (the main tooth-bearing bones in the upper jaw) had between 14 and at least 17 teeth" makes no sense to me. How can it have between 14-17 teeth and at least 17 teeth? I thought about changing it to "at least 14 teeth and as many as 18 teeth", but figured I'd consult with you first. Is a specific maximum number mentioned in the reference? If it is, I say we should go with that number.
"These include Marsh's Creosaurus[21] and Labrosaurus (1879),[33] and Cope's Epanterias.[34]" Why does Labrosaurus need a date by it? Were there two different Labrosaurus specimens described by Marsh? If not, the date here might be superfluous.
"as of 2006, of the 73 individual dinosaurs that at minimum must be present to account for the bones, 46 are Allosaurus" makes no sense to me. I don't know how to fix it, though. What is being said here? Something like "of the 73 individual dinosaurs found there, 46 are Allosaurus..."?
"The period since Madsen's monograph has been marked by a great expansion in studies dealing with topics concerning Allosaurus in life (paleobiological and paleoecological topics). Such studies have covered topics including skeletal variation,[42][43] growth,[44][45] skull construction[46] and other biomechanical topics,[18] hunting methods,[47][46] the possibility of gregarious living and parental care,[48][49] and vision.[50] Reanalysis of old material (particularly of large 'allosaur' specimens),[10][51] new discoveries in Portugal,[52][53] and several very complete new specimens[54][16][55] have also contributed to the growing knowledge base." This paragraph is overcited. It is only three sentences long, but has eighteen citations! One citation is probably good enough for each example of study topic, which would reduce the number of citations to ten. The "Skull" section also has several instances of multiple citations. These could also be pared down.
"with A. europaeus not yet named and A. maximus assigned ..." If A. europaeus hasn't been named yet, should it appear in italics?
"There is also an A. maximus in Paul (1988), but it is a typographical error for A. amplexus." That's quite a typo! How does one accidentally type "maximus" when "amplexus" is meant? This probably needs more than one citation, if possible. Also, since it's a typo, and not a described name, should it be in italics?
" "A. agilis", seen in Zittel, 1887, and Osborn, 1912, is a typographical error for A. fragilis." Are typographical errors considered described?
Why is Labrosaurus ferox discussed twice, first in the invalid species paragraph, then in the invalid genera paragraph? I think this info should be combined.
"Allosaurus valens is a typo for Antrodemus valens accidentally used by Friedrich von Huene in 1932" Again, are italics appropriate here? For names that are only typos?
"L. fragilis is a typographical error by Marsh (1896) for Labrosaurus ferox" Ditto; also maybe redundant with the earlier paragraphs?
You've done wonderful work, and I'd "fix" some of these issues myself, but I'm not sure how much really needs fixing, and I hate for you to have to re-correct stuff, so I only fixed grammar and junk. Firsfron of Ronchester 20:16, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
By and large, I'm finished adding things. There was a bit more in the brain article, speculating on behavior, extinction, and physiology, but I thought that it was getting pretty far afield, so I left it out. There are also sizes for endocasts, but the articles neglect to mention the size of the Allosaurus, a useful bit of context. I'm sure there are bits and pieces of information all over that could be added, but hey. J. Spencer 04:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
This sentence: "In 1988 Gregory S. Paul proposed that the family Allosauridae was ancestral to the Tyrannosauridae (and thus would be paraphyletic),[29] but this has been rejected, with tyrannosaurids identified as members of a separate branch of theropods, the Coelurosauria.[30]" seems problematic to me. I've got several old reference books from the 1960s which claim Allosaurus was "directly ancestral" to Tyrannosaurus, which indicates to me that Paul wasn't the first person to suggest a direct ancestral relationship. And while it's true the article doesn't actually state Paul was the first, it doesn't clarify that this wasn't the first time such a relationship had been proposed. I think this section needs further clarification; maybe I'm being overly picky. If so, feel free to swat me. Firsfron of Ronchester 01:09, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm tidying this article for FAC, and although I don't mind the "Big Al" image, I think I'd have a hard time justifying it as fair-use, since the article already has a lot of illustrations. Any thoughts? J. Spencer 16:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Is that from 15th birthday to 16th birthday? or from 14½ to 15½? In a 366-day leap year or a regular year? Or, using calculus, the instantaneous slope of the growth curve on the 15th birthday, based on a Julian year, or some other year? (unsigned)
The following suggestions were generated by a semi-automatic javascript program, and might not be applicable for the article in question.
You may wish to browse through User:AndyZ/Suggestions for further ideas. Thanks, ¿Amar៛ Talk to me/ My edits 08:48, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
This image on the left is labeled as the mounted AMNH 5753 itself, but based on the ruler like object on the right of the image, the signature on the left part of the base, and the fact that the base looks quite different from the base on this picture which is the mount for certain [2], has me wondering whether that picture is really just of a scale model, like this image of a scale model of mounted two Tyrannosaurus on the right? FunkMonk ( talk) 20:43, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
Why aren't there any references at the beginning of the article? There isn't one single reference. Lord of Moria (Avicenna) Talk Contribs 19:21, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
The current image is most likely going to be deleted, since it was from Morguefile.com, and therefore didn't have a usable license. I've searched for images we could use instead, so on the right are two similar images from Commons, but which have a bit of the lower jaw cropped out, and noisy backgrounds. Then one where the arms are showing. And then one from Flickr, which can be cropped, but is a bit dark: [3] What do people think? FunkMonk ( talk) 17:32, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
There is a substantial difference between "short toothed" and "long toothed" Allosaurs, as illustrated in the article's source #42, and something I'd personally want elaborated on. That might just be me though...many of the theropod pages need to be cleaned but expanded- especially better known animals like Dilophosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Torvosaurus, etc.- but I don't want to start overhauling this stuff without the input of the established persons around here (just f.y.i. the Allosaurus article is NOT in need of expansion, IMO) Forescore68 ( talk) 22:21, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
Some older books give the meaning of 'Allosaurus' as 'Leaping lizard'. Does anyone know where this comes from? Is it still a viable alternative meaning or was it an error? CFLeon ( talk) 20:20, 20 June 2010 (UTC)
I'm a reader only, never editor, and gleefully perused the Allosaurus article as a feature. The super enjoyable wording of the feature, which was as follows, "... it has long attracted attention outside paleontological circles, and has been a lead dinosaur in several films and documentaries...," I found enchanting and was disappointed to find that the article doesn't actually read that way. I humbly request that this wording be considered for more or less, permanent placement in the article.
I had to chat my way over to this page, so I'm not sure I'll notice if someone responds to this, but I have some hope that I may one day find that the article casts the Allosaur as the superstar it really is. Thanks for your attention.
sincerely, from Lisa, Torriblezone —Preceding unsigned comment added by Torriblezone ( talk • contribs) 02:23, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
Nice to see this on the main page. But I have a comment about the image File:Allosaurus size comparison.svg and the associated caption, which reads The size range of Allosaurus and Epanterias (brown), compared with a human. It strikes me that there are two possible colours there that qualify as brown (the largest and the second smallest, fragillis), and I assumed that the largest dino, coloured chestnut to my eye, was one of the allosaurs. Could the image be recoloured to remove possible confusion? Sabine's Sunbird talk 17:21, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
I' ve just added a new cultural reference of the allosaurus and that is featured in the film Land of the Lost. -- Harvey Dos Caras ( talk) 11:12, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
Why is the allosaurus in the 1940 film Fantasia excluded? Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:57, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
If that is a Tyrannosaurus, then not only is the number of fingers wrong, but also a major anachronism has been committed, since the Stegosaurus (the prey of the allosaurus) belongs in the Jurassic period, while the Tyrannosaurus belongs to the Cretaceous. Rather than saying it must be a T. rex with the wrong number of fingers, in the wrong geological period, would it not be simpler to say it is an Allosaurus? See Occam's Razor. Das Baz, aka Erudil 18:06, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
FunkMonk, it is not logical to say a principle of logic that was developed and published centuries ago is "original" research. The principle you propose, that one should not be allowed to think for oneself but only to parrot what somebody else has said, sounds like a formula for total mental stagnation. Das Baz, aka Erudil 16:47, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
If so, then Wikipedia is fighting against, not working for, the advancement of human knowledge. Such a principle that you cannot think, only parrot, is an outrage against Epistemology. Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:56, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
A citation says it is a Tyrannosaurus with the wrong number of fingers in the wrong Era (Jurassic). Common Sense and logic say it is an Allosaurus. The citation trumps the common sense and logic. And this is what is wrong with Wikipedia. Das Baz, aka Erudil 18:00, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Thank you, Martyniuk. This is getting more complicated than I thought it would be. So I'm giving it a rest for a while. Maybe I shall return to the matter when I have more time. Das Baz, aka Erudil 17:59, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I just noticed that the size diagram has been featured on Dinosaur Tracking. It's been a while since I looked at this image, it hasn't been modified since 2007. Since then we have become a bit more strict on what sources we use and I noticed that we are still using Mortimers estimates on the DML as reference for the 9.7m and 12m specimens. Should we review this? Maybe we should emphasize that thses arn't published? Also the silhouettes are based on Hartman's Allosaurus skeletal; If I remember correctly someone got permision to use some of them ages ago. I might check with him to see if this is still ok. Steveoc 86 ( talk) 15:43, 14 July 2011 (UTC)
MMartyniuk ( talk) 17:00, 14 July 2011 (UTC)
This article states that Allosaurus averaged 28 ft. in length. I've always been under the impression that the animal was roughly the size of Tyrannosaurus. I mean, I've been next to a mounted Allosaurus skeleton before and it was rather small, but even then I just assumed that it wasn't a fully grown individual. What happened to the 40-foot allosaur in all my books?
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Allosaurus Jaws Steveoc86.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on November 12, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-11-12. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng { chat} 19:21, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
'An artist's rendition of the dinosaur genus, Allosaurus, with it's jaws open fully, based on the research of paleontologist Robert T. Bakker. Allosaurus was an active predator of large animals, and probably had the ability to open its jaws extremely wide. Studies suggest that it used its skull like a hatchet against prey, attacking open-mouthed, slashing flesh with its teeth, and tearing it away without splintering bones.' Steveoc 86 ( talk) 01:29, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
Rauhut (2011) reexamined the holotype of Allosaurus tendagurensis and concluded that this taxon lacks any characters to permit referral to Allosaurus and represents a nomen dubium possibly referrable to Carcharodontosauridae.
There is no reason to believe that Antrodemus is conspecific with A. fragilis because the holotype (USNM 218) lacks distinguishing characters to distinguish it from other large bodied theropods from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Until USNM 218 is compared with other carnosaurs, it would be appropriate to consider Antrodemus an indeterminate non-coelurosaur tetauran.
Rauhut, Oliver W. M. (2011). "Theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania)". Special Papers in Palaeontology 86: 195-239. 68.4.61.168 ( talk) 15:30, 12 January 2012 (UTC)Vahe Demirjian
The large predatory theropod in Conan Doyle's novel has not been confirmed as an Allosaurus. While it was identified with certainty in the 1925 film adaptation, in the novel it was just a suggestion as to what it may have been. It could also very well have been a species unknown to the fossil record or even a present-day descendant of a fossil taxon. I highly doubt it was a carnosaur of any sort, the description of its "bloated, toad-like face" made me picture a very large abelisaurid, and in my opinion that's what it was. The article could instead explain that it "may" have been an Allosaurus and that the genus was indeed mentioned, but concluding as a fact that the theropod was an allosaur doesn't suggest an especially good article. Could someone a little more knowledgable change the article to reflect this, please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.130.109 ( talk) 22:32, 2 December 2011 (UTC)
Whatever. My point is that the dinosaurs appearing simply seemed to be generic theropods, with little evidence supporting the notion that they were Allosaurus (and yes, this is the same guy who started this section). -- 24.36.130.109 ( talk) 20:55, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
This article states that the average Allosaurus fragillis specimen was 8.5 m, however, using lengths from the theropod database http://archosaur.us/theropoddatabase/Carnosauria.htm#Allosaurusfragilis I got an average size from this species: USNM 7437, 6.8-7.7 m (Skeleton: skull 682 mm, femur 770 mm) UUVP 6000/DINO 2560, 8.8 m (Skeleton: skull 850-880 mm, femur 880 mm) AMH 666, 8.8 m (Skull, 885 mm) USNM 8423, 8.05 m (femur 805 mm) AMNH 600, 8.1 m (skull, 810 mm) AMNH 680, 10 m (femur 1.008 m) NMMNH P-26083 10.4 m (femur 1.04 m, tibia 910 mm) Using the provided figures, the estimate for average length yields a length of 8.8 m, not 8.5 m. PD: According to Scott Hartman (known for his extremely accurate skeletals), UUVP 6000 is not 8.5 but 8.8 m, his skeleton can be seen here: http://scotthartman.deviantart.com/art/Allosaur-comparison-173333349 -- Dinoexpert ( talk) 05:06, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
}I agree, but keep in mind that assuming 8.5 m is average is very risky too, and I cannot find the source where 8.5 m is established as average, can you provide me a link?-- Dinoexpert ( talk) 16:14, 20 December 2013 (UTC)
It seems all recent studies remove it from Allosaurus. Does it belong in the taxobox then? FunkMonk ( talk) 20:51, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
Citation needed. (← This is a disruptive edit that clearly demonstrates vandalism and this user's IP address should be immediately blocked, as per user Denniss' subjective standard for what constitutes vandalism.) 68.100.138.56 ( talk) 02:21, 1 March 2013 (UTC)
I think it should be included in the popular culture section, since the protagonist is an anthropomorphic allosaurus — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.83.132.246 ( talk) 15:13, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
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Should these be merged into here? FunkMonk ( talk) 07:28, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Of course remove the trivial statements of its depictions in media, but should the note about Allosaurus being the state fossil of Utah stay or be placed elsewhere? Gabeluna27 ( talk) 06:43, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
The following from Chure and Loewen's description of A. jimmadseni suggest that the article will need to be revised heavily in the future:
We currently recognize only three species in genus Allosaurus: Allosaurus fragilis and Allosaurus jimmadseni in North America and Allosaurus europaeus in Europe. [...] Other previously named species of Allosaurus are invalid, including the recently named Allosaurus lucasi (Dalman, 2014), and are referable to either Allosaurus fragilis or are Allosaurus species indeterminate. These findings will be addressed in a subsequent review of species of Allosaurus, which is in preparation.
Lythronaxargestes ( talk | contribs) 19:09, 24 January 2020 (UTC)
A bit off-topic but tomorrow I think I'll look into updating the scale chart. I'd like to separate Big Al from the A. fragilis silhouettes, add headings for both species, and maybe add in the type specimens of both species. I'm a little reluctant to include A. europaeus because it's basically just a skull and total body estimates would be very imprecise and potentially OR. Steveoc 86 ( talk) 00:29, 25 January 2020 (UTC)
Any reason we split this species off into its own article? User:Dunkleosteus77 | push to talk 06:35, 17 February 2020 (UTC)