Outline: a typical theropod
Metriacanthosaurus
"moderately spined lizard"
- Lived
- 162 to 159 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 8.2 m (27 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Metriacanthosauridae
- Found in
- United Kingdom
- Named by
- Walker 1964
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
160 million years ago
Field notes
About Metriacanthosaurus
What it was like
Metriacanthosaurus was a large two-legged predator about 8.2 meters (27 feet) long. It is known from part of the hips, a leg and some backbones. The spines on its back were taller than in most predators of its time, but not as tall as in the sail-backed spinosaurs.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now England. Its bones come from the Oxford Clay.
How it was found
Its bones were first placed in Megalosaurus. Walker gave it its own genus in 1964. It gave its name to the metriacanthosaurids, a family that also includes Sinraptor and Yangchuanosaurus.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Metriacanthosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. D. Walker. 1964. Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus and the origin of carnosaurs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences 248:53-134