Acrocanthosaurus
Acrocanthosaurus 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. It is best known for the high neural spines on many of its vertebrae, which most likely supported a ridge of muscle over the animal’s neck, back, and hips. Its fossil remains are found mainly in the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, although teeth have been found as far east as Maryland, suggesting a continent wide range.
About Acrocanthosaurus in brief
Acrocanthosaurus 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. It is best known for the high neural spines on many of its vertebrae, which most likely supported a ridge of muscle over the animal’s neck, back, and hips. Its fossil remains are found mainly in the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, although teeth have been found as far east as Maryland, suggesting a continent wide range. It was one of the largest theropods, reaching 11. 5 meters in length, and weighing up to 6. 2 metric tons. The largest specimen is estimated to have measured 11.5m from snout to tail tip and weighed 7 to 6 metric tons with an upper maximum weight of 7 to 2 tons. Its skull alone was nearly 1m in length and estimated to be nearly 3m in circumference. It may have been a bipedal predator which preyed on sauropods, ornithopods, and ankylosaurs. There is one named species, which is named after Atoka County in Oklahoma, where the original specimens were found. The name was coined in 1950 by American paleontologists J. Willis Stovall and Wann Langston Jr. The holotype and paratype consist of two partial skeletons and a piece of skull material from the Antlers Formation in Oklahoma. Two much more complete specimens were described in the 1990s. The first is a partial skeleton, missing most of the skull, recovered from the Twin Mountains Formation of Texas and currently part of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History collection.
An even more complete skeleton was recovered from Oklahoma by Cephis Hall and Sid Love, prepared by the Black Hills Institute in South Dakota, and is now housed at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. It includes the only known complete skull and forelimb. The presence of Acro canthosaurus in the Cloverly Formation was established in 2012 with the description of another partial skeleton. It came from a bonebed in the Bighorn Basin of north-central Wyoming, and was found near the shoulder blade of a Sauroposeidon. An assortment of other fragmentary theropOD remains from the formation may also belong to Acro Canthosaurus, which may be the only large theropody in the Clay Formation. Several teeth from the Arundel Formation of Maryland have been described as almost identical to those of the genus. Many other geologic formations in the western United States have also been referred to the genus, but most of these have been misidentified; there is some disagreement, however, with some disagreement regarding this assessment. AcroCanthosaurus may be known from less complete remains outside of Oklahoma,. Texas and Wyoming. A tooth from southern Arizona has been referred. to the genera, and matching tooth marks have been discovered in sauropod bones from the same area.
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This page is based on the article Acrocanthosaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
