Allosauroidea

Allosauroidea were a clade of theropod dinosaurs. The oldest-known allosauroid, Shidaisaurus, appeared in the early Middle Jurassic (probably Bajocian stage) of China. The last known surviving members of the group died out around 90 million years ago in Asia (Shaochilong) and South America (Mapusaurus), Allosauroids had long, narrow skulls, large orbits, three-fingered hands, and usually had "horns" on their heads. The most famous and best understood allosauroid is the Allosaurus.

Allosauroidea Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous,
Allosaurus jimmadseni specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Infraorder:	Carnosauria
Superfamily:	Allosauroidea Marsh, 1878
Type species
†Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877
Subgroups
†Asfaltovenator †Erectopus †Lourinhanosaurus? †Monolophosaurus? †Xuanhanosaurus? †Metriacanthosauridae †Piatnitzkysauridae? †Allosauria †Allosauridae †Carcharodontosauria †Datanglong? †Lusovenator †Siamraptor †Carcharodontosauridae †Neovenatoridae †Chilantaisaurus? †Neovenator †Siats?

Allosauroidea Media

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  Size comparison of seven carnosaurs

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  Coelophysis was a small, slenderly-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore that could grow up to 3 m long. It is one of the earliest known dinosaur genera. Scattered material representing similar animals has been found worldwide in some Late Triassic and Early Jurassic formations.

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  Dilophosaurus: "Two crested lizard" Early Jurassic, North America

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  Carnotaurus is one of the largest known abelisaurids at approximately 8 m in length, weighing around 1.5 kg in body mass. Typical of abelisaurids, it had extremely small arms, and and a deep skull with a dramatically shortened snout. Carnotaurus is the only known carnivorous dinosaur to have two thick horns above the eyes.

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  Artistic reconstruction of Neovenator salerii. Proportions align with Hartman; cranial integument is based on Barker et al. (2017).