Species of Allosaurus - Potentially Valid Species

Potentially Valid Species

It is unclear how many species of Allosaurus there were. Seven species have been considered potentially valid since 1988 (A. amplexus, A. atrox, A. europaeus, the type species A. fragilis, the as-yet not formally described "A. jimmadseni", A. maximus, and A. tendagurensis), although only a fraction are usually considered valid at any given time. 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. In the most recent review of basal tetanuran theropods, only A. fragilis (including A. amplexus and A. atrox), "A. jimmadseni" (as an unnamed species), and A. tendagurensis were accepted as potentially valid species, with A. europaeus not yet proposed and A. maximus assigned to Saurophaganax.

A. fragilis is the type species and was named by Marsh in 1877. It is known from the remains of at least sixty individuals, all found in the Kimmeridgian–Tithonian Upper Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the United States, spread across the states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Details of the humerus (upper arm) of A. fragilis have been used as diagnostic among Morrison theropods, but the discovery of "A. jimmadseni" indicates that this will no longer be the case at the species level. A. fragilis has always been difficult to define on the basis of its fragmentary and limited holotype, and so authors have advanced different proposals for redefining the species on better material.

A. amplexus was named by Gregory S. Paul for giant Morrison allosaur remains, and included in his conception Saurophagus maximus (later Saurophaganax). A. amplexus was originally coined by Cope in 1878 as the type species of his new genus Epanterias, and is based on what is now AMNH 5767, parts of three vertebrae, a coracoid, and a metatarsal. Following Paul's work, this species has been accepted as a synonym of A. fragilis.

Allosaurus material from Portugal was first reported in 1999 on the basis of MHNUL/AND.001, a partial skeleton including a quadrate, vertebrae, ribs, gastralia, chevrons, part of the hips, and hindlimbs. This specimen was assigned to A. fragilis, but the subsequent discovery of a partial skull and neck (ML 415) near Lourinhã, in the Kimmeridgian-age Porto Novo Member of the Lourinhã Formation, spurred the naming of the new species A. europaeus. It differs from other species of Allosaurus in cranial details. However, more material may show it to be A. fragilis, as originally described.

Daniel Chure's work on Morrison allosaurid remains has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for "A. jimmadseni" and A. maximus. "A. jimmadseni" is the proposed name for a new species of Morrison allosaur, based on a nearly complete skeleton and skull. A. sp. 2, as it is also known, differs from A. fragilis in several anatomical details including a jugal or cheekbone with a straight lower margin, and is also found only in the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation, with A. fragilis only present in the higher Brushy Basin Member. A. maximus was coined by David K. Smith for Chure's Saurophaganax maximus, a taxon created by Chure in 1995 for giant allosaurid remains from the Morrison of Oklahoma. These remains had been known as Saurophagus, but that name was already in use, leading Chure to propose a substitute. Smith, in his 1998 analysis of variation, concluded that S. maximus was not different enough from Allosaurus to be a separate genus, but did warrant its own species, A. maximus. This reassignment was rejected in the most recent review of basal tetanurans. There is also an A. maximus in Paul (1988), but it is a typographical error for A. amplexus.