Allosauroidea

Holozoa

Allosauroids Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, 176–70 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Allosaurus skull at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Node:	Avetheropoda
Infraorder:	†Carnosauria
Superfamily:	†Allosauroidea Marsh, 1878
Subgroups
†Allosauridae †Allosaurinae †Antrodemus †Epanterias †Saurophaganax †Carcharodontosauria †Carcharodontosauridae †Neovenatoridae †Sinraptoridae †Gasosaurus †Leshansaurus †Lourinhanosaurus †Metriacanthosaurus †Poekilopleuron †Sinraptor †Yangchuanosaurus

Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains four families — the Sinraptoridae, Allosauridae, Carcharodontosauridae, and Neovenatoridae. The oldest-known allosauroid, Sinraptor dongi, appeared in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian stage) of China, and the latest-known survivor of the group is the neovenatorid Orkoraptor of the Late Cretaceous, (Maastrichtian stage). Allosauroids had long, narrow skulls, large orbits, three-fingered hands, and usually had "horns" or ornamental crests on their heads. The most famous and best understood allosauroid is the North American genus Allosaurus.

Classification

Taxonomy

• Superfamily Allosauroidea
  • Family Allosauridae
  • Family Carcharodontosauridae
  • Family Neovenatoridae
  • Family Sinraptoridae

Phylogeny

The clade Allosauroidea was originally proposed by Phil Currie and Zhao (1993; p. 2079), and later used as an undefined stem-based taxon by Paul Sereno (1997). Sereno (1998; p. 64) was the first to provide a stem-based definition for the Allosauroidea, defining the clade as "All neotetanurans closer to Allosaurus than to Neornithes." Kevin Padian (2007) used a node-based definition, defined the Allosauroidea as Allosaurus, Sinraptor, their most recent common ancestor, and all of its descendants. Thomas R. Holtz and colleagues (2004; p. 100) and Phil Currie and Ken Carpenter (2000), among others, have followed this node-based definition. However, in some analyses (such as Currie & Carpenter, 2000), the placement of the carcharodontosaurids relative to the allosaurids and sinraptorids is uncertain, and therefore it is uncertain whether or not they are allosauroids (Currie & Carpenter, 2000).

The cladogram presented here follows the 2010 analysis by Benson, Carrano and Brusatte.

Allosauroidea	Sinraptoridae Allosaurus Carcharodontosauria Carcharodontosauridae Neovenatoridae

CPT-1980

CPT-1980 is the museum catalog number for an isolated, 9.83 centimetres (3.87 in), allosauroid tooth crown currently housed at the Museo Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel. In 2009, the tooth was compared to another allosauroid tooth from Portugal that measured 12.7 centimetres (5.0 in). Analysis led to the conclusion that CPT-1980 is the largest theropod tooth ever discovered in Spain. The theropod most likely measured between 6 and 15 meters long. This tooth was discovered by locals near Riodeva, Teruel in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, more specifically known as RD-39. The rocks have been dated to the Tithonian-Berriasian stages (Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous).

References

• Currie, P. J.; Zhao, X. (1993). "A new carnosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Xinjiang, People's Republic of China". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30 (10): 2037–2081. doi:10.1139/e93-179. 
• 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. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.25.1.435. 
• 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.