The Torvosaurus was a genus of dinosaurs that inhabited our planet during the Jurassic Period (about 153 million years ago to be precise). It is classified within the group of the theropod megalaurid dinosaurs.
This genus would have been quite fierce looking. This is quite normal considering that it was a carnivorous dinosaur that had very sharp teeth. This huge predator would have been one of the biggest land-based carnivores of the Jurassic.
This huge predator was really big for the carnivores of its time with dimensions of 10 meters long and weighing about 4 to 5 tons.
We have the most complete information about the Torvosaurus in the whole Spanish-speaking network. Stay with us and discover absolutely everything about this carnivorous Jurassic dinosaur!
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Torvosaurus Taxonomy
Its taxonomy is divided as follows:
- This dinosaur is found within the Animalia kingdom
- It belongs to the Subreina Eumetazoa
- Within the Superphylum Deuterostomy
- Belongs to the Filo or Chordata division
- Within the Subphylum Vertebrata
- This dinosaur is in the Class: Sauropsida
- He belongs to the Order Saurischia
- Sub-order Theropoda
- Belongs to the Megalosauroidea Superfamily
- This dinosaur is in the Family: Megalosauridae
History of Torvosaurus
He lived on land that today belongs to the European continent and part of North America. A good number of vestiges have been found in the Morrison Formation, which is located in North America, in the United States, while the remains of the western part of the European continent were found in the Lourinhã Formation, in Portugal.
A new species of this dinosaur was recently named Torvosaurus tanneri in 1979.
Characteristics of the Torvosaurus
The length of this new species was considerable, reaching a total of 10 meters, its bone structure indicated that it really was a fairly solid and wide animal, of considerable build, coming to assume with many arguments that this new species was among the largest predators of that time, along with Epanterias.
Just to clarify, this huge animal called Epanterias is actually an individual still full of mystery and with many secrets to be revealed, and there is controversy because one group of researchers indicates that it is a species of Allosaurus while others indicate that it is a different specimen.
On the other hand, the remains found in the European region were called Torvosaurus gurneyi, specimens that reached a total length of 11 meters, however, then a review of these measurements was made and corrected by removing a few centimeters, nothing considerable really.
Additionally, the limbs located in the front area of the animal, proved to be smaller than the other limbs located in the opposite area, however, despite its size these arms proved to be powerful enough to perform maneuvers in predation.
The origin of Torvosaurus is in the Greek, where the word “torvus” means “wild” and “saurus” means “lizard”. It was Peter M. Galton who gave it the official name, who with the help and collaboration of James A. Jensen, carried out such work, in 1979. Additionally, the word “tanneri” was named after Eldon Tanner, a politician.
In 1971, Vivian Jones found the whereabouts of a very important vestige for the knowledge of this specimen in the Calico Gulch quarry. This relic was a thumb of truly amazing size, which also had a very powerful claw that even intimidated its discoverer.
After this discovery, Jones herself took the great James Alvin Jensen to the site, who at that time was an amateur collector and did additional work at Brigham Young University.
It was actually her husband’s idea to show all the findings to Alvin, so he himself was responsible for guiding him to the Morrison, already famous for the incredible discoveries that have been made in that place as several copies of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, among others.
In 1972, Alvin Jensen himself, together with Stadtman, was in charge of directing the work of excavating and extracting the buried remains, but we must point out that the official names of these remains were not really clear until seven years after this very important event.
It was 13 years after the first discovery that Jensen again managed to find another important whereabouts of remains, which were mostly bone elements belonging to the skulls of several prehistoric individuals.
In addition, the remains that were found in Colorado were personally described by another researcher with a long professional career, known as Brooks Britt, who carried out his work in 1991.
