Species of Allosaurus - Possible Australian Allosaurus

Possible Australian Allosaurus

An astragalus (ankle bone) thought to belong to a species of Allosaurus was found at Cape Paterson, Victoria in Early Cretaceous beds in southeastern Australia. It was thought to provide evidence that Australia was a refugium for animals that had gone extinct elsewhere. This identification was challenged by Samuel Welles, who thought it more resembled that of an ornithomimid, but the original authors defended their identification. With fifteen years of new specimens and research to look at, Daniel Chure reexamined the bone and found that it was not Allosaurus, but could represent an allosauroid. Similarly, Yoichi Azuma and Phil Currie, in their description of the basal allosauroid Fukuiraptor, noted that the bone closely resembled that of their new genus. This specimen is sometimes referred to as "Allosaurus robustus", an informal museum name. It may have belonged to something similar to, or the same as, Australovenator, or it may represent an abelisaur. A speculative "polar" or "dwarf allosaur" was used for the "Spirits of the Ice Forest" episode of Walking with Dinosaurs.