{{italictitle}}
{{italictitle}}
{{taxobox
| name=
Metriacanthosaurus
| fossil_range =
Middle JurassicThe Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age age called the Dogger...
| regnum =
AnimalAnimals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously...
ia
| phylum =
ChordataChordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail...
| classis =
SauropsidaReptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, generally "cold-blooded" amniotes that generally have skin covered in scales or scutes. They are tetrapods and lay amniote eggs, whose embryos are surrounded by the amnion membrane...
| superordo =
Dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
ia
| ordo =
SaurischiaSaurischia is one of the two orders, or basic divisions, of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two orders, based on their hip structure...
| subordo =
TheropodaTheropods are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs. Although they were primarily carnivorous, a number of theropod families evolved herbivory during the Cretaceous Period...
| familia =
SinraptoridaeSinraptorids were a family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. They tended to be large predators, some growing to sizes of 30 ft . Sinraptorids are carnosaurs, and many were initially classified within Megalosauridae or Allosauridae prior to recent analysis.-Classification:Cladistically,...
| subfamilia =
Metriacanthosaurinae
| subfamilia_authority =
PaulGregory Scott Paul is a freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology, and more recently has examined sociology and theology...
, 1988
| genus =
Metriacanthosaurus
| genus_authority =
von HueneFriedrich von Huene was a German paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.Huene was born in Tübingen, Kingdom of Württemberg...
, 1923
| subdivision_ranks =
SpeciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
| subdivision =
{{italictitle}}
{{italictitle}}
{{taxobox
| name=
Metriacanthosaurus
| fossil_range =
Middle JurassicThe Middle Jurassic is the second epoch of the Jurassic Period. It lasted from 176-161 million years ago. In European lithostratigraphy, rocks of this Middle Jurassic age age called the Dogger...
| regnum =
AnimalAnimals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously...
ia
| phylum =
ChordataChordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail...
| classis =
SauropsidaReptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, generally "cold-blooded" amniotes that generally have skin covered in scales or scutes. They are tetrapods and lay amniote eggs, whose embryos are surrounded by the amnion membrane...
| superordo =
Dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
ia
| ordo =
SaurischiaSaurischia is one of the two orders, or basic divisions, of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two orders, based on their hip structure...
| subordo =
TheropodaTheropods are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs. Although they were primarily carnivorous, a number of theropod families evolved herbivory during the Cretaceous Period...
| familia =
SinraptoridaeSinraptorids were a family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. They tended to be large predators, some growing to sizes of 30 ft . Sinraptorids are carnosaurs, and many were initially classified within Megalosauridae or Allosauridae prior to recent analysis.-Classification:Cladistically,...
| subfamilia =
Metriacanthosaurinae
| subfamilia_authority =
PaulGregory Scott Paul is a freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology, and more recently has examined sociology and theology...
, 1988
| genus =
Metriacanthosaurus
| genus_authority =
von HueneFriedrich von Huene was a German paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.Huene was born in Tübingen, Kingdom of Württemberg...
, 1923
| subdivision_ranks =
SpeciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
| subdivision =
- M. parkeri von Huene, 1923 (type
In taxonomy, a type species is a technical phrase, involved in the application of formal names...
)
}}
Metriacanthosaurus (meaning "moderate-spined lizard") is a
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
of
sinraptoridSinraptorids were a family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. They tended to be large predators, some growing to sizes of 30 ft . Sinraptorids are carnosaurs, and many were initially classified within Megalosauridae or Allosauridae prior to recent analysis.-Classification:Cladistically,...
dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
from the mid-Jurassic Period of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1923 German Paleontologist
Friedrich von HueneFriedrich von Huene was a German paleontologist who named more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe.Huene was born in Tübingen, Kingdom of Württemberg...
wrote a paper on
JurassicThe Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Ma to Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the "Age of Reptiles". The start of the period is marked by...
and
CretaceousThe Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
European carnivorous dinosaurs. In this paper, he examined a few specimens including an incomplete hip, a leg bone, and part of a backbone, and believed it was a new species of
MegalosaurusMegalosaurus is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period of Europe...
.
In the 1960s, however, scientist
Alick WalkerAlick Walker was a British palaeontologist, after whom the Alwalkeria genus of dinosaur is named.He was born in Skirpenbeck, near York and attended Pocklington School from 1936 to 1943. He began a degree course in engineering at Cambridge, but dropped out in 1944...
decided these fossils were too different from
Megalosaurus and named a new genus,
Metriacanthosaurus.
Metriacanthosaurus gets its name from its vertebrae, which are taller than typical carnosaurs, like
AllosaurusAllosaurus 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 Greek αλλος/allos and σαυρος/sauros...
, but smaller than other high-spined dinosaurs like
AcrocanthosaurusAcrocanthosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that existed in what is now North America during the Aptian and early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. Like most dinosaur genera, Acrocanthosaurus contains only a single species, A. atokensis. Its fossil remains are found mainly in the U.S...
.
In popular culture
- In the film version of Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is a 1993 science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. The film centers on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, where scientists have created an amusement park of cloned dinosaurs...
, one of the vials containing dinosaur DNA is labeled with the name Metriacanthosaurus, though the genus does not appear in the film. According to Thomas R. Holtz, this was probably meant to refer not to M. parkeri but rather Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensisYangchuanosaurus was a theropod dinosaur that lived in China during the late Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic, and was similar in size and appearance to its North American contemporary, Allosaurus...
, which Gregory S. PaulGregory Scott Paul is a freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology, and more recently has examined sociology and theology...
then classified as a species of Metriacanthosaurus.