Metriacanthosaurus

*Metriacanthosaurus parkeri*

* Jurassic Park Institute Artwork
* Robert F Walters Artwork

***Metriacanthosaurus*** (Greek, "moderately-spined lizard") is a genus of carnivorous dinosaurs. It belongs to the recently classified Sinraptoridae, which is its own distinct family, in its own right - like so many other Victorian Era discovered theropod Dinosaurs, the fossils of what were to be named *Metriacanthosaurus*, were dumped in the 'wastebasket taxon' of *Megalosaurus*, which was thought to have been a genus of dozens of species. In time, Paleontologists shunned the old ways which were lazy and inaccurate, leading to many so called Megalosaurs being reclassified as something else. In some cases, the 'Megalosaur' remains did not even belong to any kind of Dinosaur. *Sinraptor*, from China, is one of its closest relatives. The only species that is known of this genus is *Metriacanthosaurus parkeria*. This Theropod lived during the late Jurassic Period of Europe, hunting contemporary herbivores, such as *Callovosaurus*. It lived in the central southern region of England, primarily Oxford.

In 1923, the paleontologist Friedrich von Hume described a few fossils and concluded that they belonged to a new species of the *Megalosaurus* genus. In the 1960s Alick Walker concluded that the fossils where to different from *Megalosaurus* and concluded that this species belonged to a unique genus, he called *Metriacanthosaurus*. The species was named *Parkeria*.

In 1977, an almost complete skeleton of large Theropod was discovered in China. It was classified as a new species (*shangyouensis*) and a member of a new genus (*Yangchuanosaurus*). According to Gregory S. Paul, the genus *Yangchuanosaurus* was identical to the genus *Metriacanthosaurus* and therefore classified the animal in 1988 as *Metriacanthosaurus shangyouensis*. But this reclassification was later canceled.

## JPInstitute.com Description

Metriacanthosaurus was a fairly large meat-eater that lived in Northern Europe near the end of the Jurassic Period. This carnivore was fairly typical of Jurassic theropods. It had long neural spines, but they were not significantly longer than those found on Allosaurus.

At one time Metriacanthosaurus was thought to be the same as Megalosaurus, but later studies showed that it was different enough to give it a new name. It actually took nearly forty years to distinguish Metriacanthosaurus from Megalosaurus!

## Dinosaur Field Guide Description

Metriacanthosaurus
("moderate
spine lizard") is one of the many
dinosaurs that paleontologists would
like to know more about. In 1923,
the great German paleontologist
Friedrich von Huene wrote a sci-
entific paper describing
all
the theropod (or meat-eating)
dinosaur fossils from the jurassic
and
Cretaceous
Periods
of
Europe. In his study, he examined
a partial skeleton an incom-
plete hip, a leg bone, and part of
the backbone. He named it a new
species of Megalosaurus. In 1964, how-
ever, scientist lick Walker decided that
these bones were too different from
those of Megalosaurus and named the
dinosaur Metriacanthosaurus.
Because so little is known about
this dinosaur, any pictures of it or spec
ulation on its habits are based on com
parisons with meat-eating dinosaurs ol
which we have more complete skele.
tons. What is known is that this
dinosaur was a theropod distinct from
all the others. Perhaps someday more
complete remains of this dinosaur
be found.

### Fun Facts

Most
dinosaur are known from
only one very incomplete
fossil, like Matriacan
thosaurus.

### Trivia

Metriacan
thosaurus gets its name
from its backbones, which
have spines on top that are
taller than in many meat-
eaters (such as Allosaurus
or Tyrannosaurus) but much
smaller than those of Spinosaurus.

## Links

http://web.archive.org/web/20040214075455fw\_/http://www.jpinstitute.com/dinopedia/dinocards/dc\_metri.html#
https://web.archive.org/web/20080724015146/http://kids.yahoo.com/dinosaurs/385--Metriacanthosaurus