Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs that lived during the Middle Jurassic in what is now southern England. Although fossils from other areas have been assigned to the genus, the only certain remains of Megalosaurus come from Oxfordshire and date to the late Middle Jurassic.

A picture published with the record for Megalosaurus.

Ballista at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MegalosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
6 mWikidata
Mass
700 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 129 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 60 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 60 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 26 of 60 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 9 of 60 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 21 of 60 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 60 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 60 occurrences208–204 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences204–199 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences199–194 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences194–189 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences189–184 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences184–179 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences179–175 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences175–170 Mya — about 2 occurrences170–165 Mya — about 18 occurrences165–160 Mya — about 6 occurrences160–155 Mya — about 3 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 4 occurrences150–146 Mya — about 2 occurrences146–141 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences141–136 Mya — about 5 occurrences136–131 Mya — about 4 occurrences131–126 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences126–121 Mya — about 4 occurrences121–116 Mya — about 4 occurrences116–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–107 Mya — about 2 occurrences107–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences92–87 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences87–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences68–63 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences201.4 Mya72.2 Mya208 Mya63 Mya

60 occurrences of Megalosaurus on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

60 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

21 formations

Forest Marble — 51.87°N, 1.27°WForest Marble — 52.01°N, 1.90°WForest Marble — 51.92°N, 1.46°WCotswold Slate — 51.02°N, 3.25°WCotswold Slate — 51.90°N, 1.83°WMarnes de Dives — 49.33°N, 0.00°EChipping Norton Limestone — 51.99°N, 1.80°WChipping Norton Limestone — 51.98°N, 1.65°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.72°N, 2.77°WKimmeridge Clay — 50.60°N, 2.45°WWadhurst Clay — 50.88°N, 0.56°EWadhurst Clay — 50.90°N, 0.51°ETaynton Limestone — 51.85°N, 1.43°WTendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.24°ESharp's Hill — 51.91°N, 1.58°WOxford Clay — 52.55°N, 0.24°WAshdown — 50.67°N, 2.46°WCoral Rag — 54.13°N, 0.80°WStanford — 51.70°N, 1.32°WWoburn Sand — 52.12°N, 0.20°EBückeberg — 52.25°N, 9.51°ESüntel — 52.29°N, 8.71°ECraie de Maisieres — 50.49°N, 3.97°EWessex — 50.63°N, 1.42°WTunbridge Wells Sand — 51.09°N, 0.30°WDurlston — 50.60°N, 2.01°WHastings Beds — 50.91°N, 0.49°E

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The named rock units Megalosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megalosaurus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Megalosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

254 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 58 sites for Megalosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

36 references

Each of the 60 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 24 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Megalosaurus

Credit
Ballista at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Megalosaurus bucklandii · oumnh:J.13505

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegalosaurinae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Parkinson 1822