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Carnosauria
 
 
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Carnosauria is a group of large predatory dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s that lived during the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 and Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 periods. While it originally contained a wide assortment of giant theropods that were not closely related, the group has since been defined to encompass only the allosaurs
Allosauroidea

Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains three family ? the Sinraptoridae, Carcharodontosauridae and Allosauridae....
 and their closest kin. Recently, scientists have discovered some very large carnosaurs in the carcharodontosaurid
Carcharodontosauridae

Carcharodontosaurids were a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931 Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a Family , in modern paleontology this name indicates a clade within Carnosauria....
 family such as Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus

Giganotosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived 93 to 89 million years ago during the Turonian faunal stage of the Late Cretaceous Period ....
 and Tyrannotitan
Tyrannotitan

Tyrannotitan is a genus of huge...
 which are among the largest known predatory dinosaurs.

Distinctive characteristics of carnosaurs include large eyes, a long narrow skull
Skull

The skull is a bone structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
 and modifications of the legs and pelvis
Pelvis

The pelvis or pelvic girdle is the irregular bone structure located at the base of the spine . In the adult human, it is formed by the sacrum and the coccyx, the caudal part of the axial skeleton, and a pair of hip bones, part of the appendicular skeleton or human leg....
 such as the thigh (femur
Femur

The femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs....
) being longer than the shin (tibia
Tibia

The tibia, shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates and connects the knee with the ankle bones....
).

rn cladistic
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
 analysis defines Carnosauria as those dinosaurs sharing a more recent common ancestor with Allosaurus
Allosaurus

Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago, in the late Jurassic Period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard" and is derived from the Ancient Greek a????/allos and sa????/sauros ....
 than with modern birds.

osauria has traditionally been used as a dumping ground for all large theropods, but analysis in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that other than size, the group shared very few characteristics.






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Carnosauria is a group of large predatory dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s that lived during the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 and Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 periods. While it originally contained a wide assortment of giant theropods that were not closely related, the group has since been defined to encompass only the allosaurs
Allosauroidea

Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains three family ? the Sinraptoridae, Carcharodontosauridae and Allosauridae....
 and their closest kin. Recently, scientists have discovered some very large carnosaurs in the carcharodontosaurid
Carcharodontosauridae

Carcharodontosaurids were a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931 Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a Family , in modern paleontology this name indicates a clade within Carnosauria....
 family such as Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus

Giganotosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived 93 to 89 million years ago during the Turonian faunal stage of the Late Cretaceous Period ....
 and Tyrannotitan
Tyrannotitan

Tyrannotitan is a genus of huge...
 which are among the largest known predatory dinosaurs.

Distinctive characteristics of carnosaurs include large eyes, a long narrow skull
Skull

The skull is a bone structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
 and modifications of the legs and pelvis
Pelvis

The pelvis or pelvic girdle is the irregular bone structure located at the base of the spine . In the adult human, it is formed by the sacrum and the coccyx, the caudal part of the axial skeleton, and a pair of hip bones, part of the appendicular skeleton or human leg....
 such as the thigh (femur
Femur

The femur, or thigh bone, is the most proximal bone of the leg in vertebrates capable of walking or jumping, such as most land mammals, birds, many reptiles such as lizards, and amphibians such as frogs....
) being longer than the shin (tibia
Tibia

The tibia, shinbone, or shankbone is the larger and stronger of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates and connects the knee with the ankle bones....
).

Systematics

Modern cladistic
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
 analysis defines Carnosauria as those dinosaurs sharing a more recent common ancestor with Allosaurus
Allosaurus

Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago, in the late Jurassic Period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard" and is derived from the Ancient Greek a????/allos and sa????/sauros ....
 than with modern birds.

Taxonomy

Carnosauria has traditionally been used as a dumping ground for all large theropods, but analysis in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that other than size, the group shared very few characteristics. Most former carnosaurs were reclassified
Scientific classification

Biological classification or scientific classification in biology, is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms....
 as more primitive theropods. Others were placed in Coelurosauria
Coelurosauria

Coelurosauria is the clade containing all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds than to carnosaurs. It is a diverse group that includes Tyrannosauroidea, Ornithomimosauria, and Maniraptora; Maniraptora includes birds, the only descendents of coelurosaurs alive today....
 if they were more closely related to birds, like the tyrannosaurids. Other former carnosaurs include the megalosaurid
Megalosaurid

Megalosauridae was a family of relatively primitive Tetanurae theropod dinosaurs, order Saurischia. They were small-to-large carnivores with sharp teeth and three claws on each hand....
s, the spinosaurids, and the ceratosaurs. Even non-dinosaurs have been considered carnosaurs, such as the rauisuchia
Rauisuchia

Rauisuchia are a poorly known assemblage of predatory and mostly large Triassic archosaurs. Originally it was believed that they were related to Erythrosuchidae, but it is now known that they are Crurotarsi....
n Teratosaurus
Teratosaurus

Teratosaurus was a genus of rauisuchian known from the Triassic Stubensandstein of Germany and from the Krasiej?w of Poland. The type specimen was described by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer on the basis of a left maxilla with large teeth, which he declared to be distinct from Belodon....
.

  • Infraorder Carnosauria
    • Erectopus
      Erectopus

      Erectopus is an allosauroid theropod from the Lower Cretaceous of France. The material comprising the type series was discovered in the late 19th century from the Phosphate-bearing beds of La Penth?ive at Louppy-le-Ch?teau in eastern France, which have also produced remains of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and crocodiles....
    • Fukuiraptor
      Fukuiraptor

      Fukuiraptor was a medium-sized carnivore of the Early Cretaceous that lived in what is now Japan. Scientists first thought it was a member of the Dromaeosauridae, but after studying the fossils they now believe it was related to Allosaurus....
    • Gasosaurus
      Gasosaurus

      Gasosaurus was a tetanuran dinosaur discovered in Dashanpu, China. The scientific name, meaning "Gas Lizard", honours the gasoline company that found the Dashanpu fossil quarry in Sichuan Province, now named as the Lower Shaximiao Formation....
      ?
    • Megaraptor
      Megaraptor

      Megaraptor was once thought to be the largest dromaeosaur ever found, but is now known to be a more basal type of Tetanurae, possibly a Carnosauria or Spinosauroidea....
      ?
    • Monolophosaurus
      Monolophosaurus

      Monolophosaurus was a carnosaur from Middle Jurassic China. It was named for the single crest on top of its skull. It could grow to be 5 meters long and 1.8 meters high....
    • Siamotyrannus
      Siamotyrannus

      Siamotyrannus is a genus of carnosaur from the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils, the pelvis and vertebrae were found in Thailand. As evidenced by its name, it was originally thought to be a tyrannosauroid, though it is quite small at 6.5 meters in length ....
    • Superfamily Allosauroidea
      Allosauroidea

      Allosauroidea is a superfamily or clade of theropod dinosaurs which contains three family ? the Sinraptoridae, Carcharodontosauridae and Allosauridae....
      • Becklespinax
        Becklespinax

        Becklespinax is a genus of large theropod dinosaur based on a type specimen of three tall-spined vertebrae found in 1884 in Sussex, England by the fossil collector Samuel Beckles....
        ?
      • Family Allosauridae
      • Family Carcharodontosauridae
        Carcharodontosauridae

        Carcharodontosaurids were a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931 Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a Family , in modern paleontology this name indicates a clade within Carnosauria....
      • Family Sinraptoridae
        Sinraptoridae

        Sinraptorids were a family of carnivore theropod dinosaurs. They tended to be large predators, some growing to sizes of 30 Foot . Sinraptorids are Carnosauria, and many were initially classified within Megalosauridae or Allosauridae prior to recent analysis....


"Carnosaurus"

"Carnosaurus" is an informal
Nomen nudum

The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin language term, meaning "naked name". In taxonomy, this is used to indicate a term or phrase which looks like a scientific name, and may well have been intended to become a scientific name, but fails to be one because it was not published with an adequate description , and thus is "bare" or "naked"....
 generic
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 name, attributed to Friedrich von Huene
Friedrich von Huene

Friedrich von Huene was a Germany paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.Huene was born in T?bingen, Kingdom of W?rttemberg....
, 1929, that is sometimes seen in lists of dinosaurs. It is probably a typographical error; von Huene intended to assign indeterminate remains to Carnosauria incertae sedis
Incertae sedis

Incertae sedis , abbreviation "inc. sed.", is a term used to define a taxonomy group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined....
, but at some point in the process of publication, the text was revised to make it appear that he was creating a new generic name "Carnosaurus" (as described by George Olshevsky
George Olshevsky

George Olshevsky is a freelance editing, writer, publisher, paleontologist, and mathematician living in San Diego, California.Olshevsky maintains the comprehensive online Dinosaur Genera List....
 in a 1999 post to the Dinosaur Mailing List). The name is undescribed and has not been used seriously.