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There have been a number of potential species assigned to Allosaurus, a carnosaurian dinosaur, since its description in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh, but only a handful are still regarded as valid. Allosaurus was originally described from material from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States of America; the type species A. fragilis became one of the best-known species of dinosaur. The genus Allosaurus was part of the Marsh/Edward Drinker Cope "Bone Wars" of the late 1800s, and its taxonomy became increasingly confused due to the competition, with several genera and species named by Cope and Marsh now regarded as synonyms of Allosaurus or A. fragilis. Since the description of Allosaurus, scientists have proposed additional species from such far-flung locales as Portugal, Siberia, Switzerland, and Tanzania, Australia and unnamed remains from China have also been assigned to the genus at one time or another. It is unclear how many species of Allosaurus there were. Seven species have been considered potentially valid since 1988. There are also at least ten dubious or undescribed species that have been assigned to Allosaurus over the years, along with the species belonging to genera now sunk into Allosaurus. (Read more...)

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From The Fossil Wiki's newest articles:

• ... that in 2005, an Acrocanthosaurus skull (pictured) was CT scanned, proving that Acrocanthosaurus was a carcharodontosaurid?
• ... that Irritator is only known from a skull that was badly obscured by plaster which was added by the commercial fossil-collecting fossil-poachers who illegally sold it in hopes of making the fossil look more complete and valuable?
• ... that rhynchosaurs had unique teeth that were modified into broad tooth plates?
• ... that a trackway produced by an unknown crocodyliform that measured approximately 12 meters in length was uncovered in the Galve region of Spain?
• ... that Loxommatids are possibly the first tetrapodomorph group to actually spend substantial time on land.?
• ... that Zuniceratops was discovered by 8 year old Christopher James Wolfe, son of paleontologist Douglas G. Wolfe?

Paleontologist of the Month

Paul Sereno is an American paleontologist who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence." Sereno's most widely publicized discovery is that of a nearly complete specimen of Sarcosuchus imperator (popularly known as SuperCroc) at Gadoufaoua in the Tenere desert of Niger. Other major discoveries include Eoraptor - the oldest known dinosaur fossil, Jobaria, the first good skull of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, Afrovenator, Suchomimus and the African pterosaur. (Read more...)

2009 In the News                                • Suggest a news item •

• A new species of Eobaatar, a Cretaceous mammal, is described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
• Tianyuraptor (pictured), a new genus of short-armed dromaeosaurid dinosaur, is described from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in China.
• Research at Virginia Tech has shown that the oldest complex life forms – living in nutrient-rich oceans more than 540 million years ago – likely fed by osmosis.
• Nanostructures preserved in feather fossils more than 40 million years old show evidence that those feathers were once vivid and iridescent in color.
• The hair-like filaments found in pterosaurs are officially described as pycnofibers.
• A new report from the scientific journal Lethaia suggests that theropod dinosaurs preyed upon juveniles and newborns, as opposed to fully grown adults.
• A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage.
• Newly described remains of the stem-group mammal Suminia are announced which indicate that it was aboreal and had opposable, grasping thumbs.

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"It is well known, that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it ... But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such a one has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings."

—U.S. President Thomas Jefferson describing the bones at Haynes cave. Notes on the State of Virginia (1782), 71, 77.

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