page_title: Megalosauridae
section_title: Palaeogeography
hierarchical_section_title: Megalosauridae / Palaeoecology / Palaeogeography
context_page_description: Megalosauridae is a monophyletic family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs within the group Megalosauroidea, closely related to the family Spinosauridae. Some members of this family include Megalosaurus, Torvosaurus, Eustreptospondylus, and Afrovenator. Appearing in the Middle Jurassic, megalosaurids were among the first major radiation of large theropod dinosaurs, although they became extinct by the end of the Jurassic period. They were a relatively primitive group of basal tetanurans containing two main subfamilies, Megalosaurinae and Afrovenatorinae, along with the basal genus Eustreptospondylus, an unresolved taxon which differs from both subfamilies.
  The defining megalosaurid is Megalosaurus bucklandii, first named and described in 1824 by William Buckland after multiple finds in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, UK. Megalosaurus was the first formally described dinosaur and was the basis for the establishment of the clade Dinosauria. It is also one of the largest known Middle Jurassic carnivorous dinosaurs, with the best-preserved femur at 805 mm and a proposed body mass of around 943 kg.
context_section_description: Species included in Megalosauridae have been found on every modern continent, split relatively equally between sites on the Gondwana and Laurasia supercontinents. Paleogeography findings show that Megalosauridae was mainly restricted to the Middle to Late Jurassic, suggesting they went extinct at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary 145 million years ago.
  The global radiation of these carnivorous theropods occurred in two steps. First, radiation occurred during Pangaea's breakup during the Early Jurassic, about 200 million years ago. When the Tethys Sea emerged between the supercontinent, megalosauroids radiated to the two halves of Pangaea. The second step of radiation occurred during the Middle and Late Jurassic, 174 to 145 million years ago, in allosauroids and coelurosaurs. Megalosauridae appears to have gone extinct at the end of this time period.
  Megalosaurid remains have been found in various areas of the world throughout history. For example, Megalosauridae contains the most primitive theropod embryo ever found, from Early Tithonian Portugal 152 million years ago (mya). In addition, various megalosaurid fossil discoveries have been dated to Bajocian-Callovian England and France 168 to 163 mya, Middle Jurassic Africa about 170 mya, Late Jurassic China 163 to 145 mya, and Tithonian North America about 150 mya. Most recently, megalosaurids have been found in the Tiourarén Formation in Niger, proving again that these basal tetanurans have experienced global radiation.
caption: Pangea before the split into Gondwana and Laurasia