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Megalosaur

This is some kind of a megalosaur I drew some time ago. I think it's supposed to be a Dubreuillosaurus, but I didn't really bother with any anatomical accuracy so I just call it a megalosaur.

Anyway, megalosaurs are interesting. They're usually agreed to be basal tetanuran theropods and sister-taxon to spinosaurs, together forming the Spinosauroidea. But the intrarelationship among the Megalosauridae is a mess. In short no one really knows which dinosaur is more closely related to the other. This is inevitable to a certain extent due to the fragmentary nature of many megalosaur specimens but also because of the historical treatment of 'megalosaurs' being kind of a wast basket for theropod fossils of uncertain affinities.

Comments

Zach said…
Ironically, spinosauroids are the best-known megalosaurs. And as derived as they are, they tell us almost nothing about their ancestry. Sereno links them to African "torvosaurs," but I think he's just using that as a different term for "megalosaurs." Eustreptosponylous (awful name) is probably the most complete "megalosaur" known.
18 June, 2007 23:31
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