Megalosaurus

▪ dinosaur

      carnivorous dinosaur and the subject of the first scientific description of a dinosaur ever published. Known from fossils of the Middle Jurassic Period (180 million to 160 million years ago) in Britain, it was described by William Buckland (Buckland, William) in 1822 on the basis of scattered bones of the vertebrae, hip, hindlimb, and a lower jaw fragment with some daggerlike teeth.

      Megalosaurus was originally reconstructed as a striding quadrupedal lizard but was later determined to have been a bipedal and predatory theropod with short arms and clawed grasping hands. The jaws carried long serrated bladelike teeth, much like those of Allosaurus and other large theropods, to which it must have been closely related. At the beginning of the 21st century, Megalosaurus remains a rather poorly known dinosaur. Fossils of a possibly related genus, Poikilopleuron, from near the Normandy coast of France, were destroyed during World War II.

* * *