Megalosaurus was a carnivore (meat-eater) that lived in
Europe
(including
FrancePortugal,
and southern England),
during the
middle Jurassic period,
between about 181 to 169 million years ago.
Part of Megalosaurus bone was discovered in a quarry in
England in
1676. Although it was correctly identified as the femur from a large animal,
but it was wrongly thought to be the thigh bone of a giant human! Further
discoveries were made in the 19th century, starting from 1815
and acquired by William Buckland.
In 1818, French anatomist, Georges Cuvier, visited, and realized the bones were from
a giant lizard-like creature, and thus in 1824,
Buckland
reported and named the animal in a report entitled
"Notice on the Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield".
Megalosaurus was in fact the first dinosaur named - in fact it had its name,
even before the word dinosaur existed - the term "dinosauria" was only coined by
Sir Richard Owen in 1842.
Early reconstructions of Megalosaurus (such as the one found at
Dinosaur Court)
tend depict the animal as a heavily-built quadruped (to add to the confusion, some early literature refers to
all dinosaurs found in Europe
as Megalosaurus). We now know however that Megalosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with relatively short
fore limbs.
"Megalosaurus" means "big lizard". It was the first dinosaur named, its name being chosen by William Buckland in 1824.
Megalosaurus was a member of the Saurischia ("lizard-hipped") order of dinosaurs. What this means, is that although Megalosaurus was not closely related to lizards, it did have similarly shaped pelvic bones.
Megalosaurus was a Theropod - a member of a group of related bipedal dinosaurs that included the ancestors of birds (although Megalosaurus was not itself an ancestor of birds).
Megalosaurus lived between about 181 million years ago and 169 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE,COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.à r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
In Association With Amazon.com Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In Association With Amazon.co.uk Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon Associate, our company earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon, the Amazon logo, Endless, and the Endless logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Disclosure:
Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for
our own company's websites, products, and services,
and for other organization's websites, products, and services.
In the case of links to other organization's websites,
our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services,
or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website.
Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services,
is based on information provided by that organization,
the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should
not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question.
Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid
to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more
detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures
Our sites use cookies, some of which may already be set on your computer. Use of our site constitutes consent for this. For details, please see Privacy.
Click privacy for information about our company's privacy, data collection and data retention policies, and your rights.
