Allosauroidea

Allosauroidea is a clade of theropod dinosaurs that includes Allosaurus and its close relatives. Its members lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous.

Theropoda: Theropoda is a dinosaur group that includes birds and their extinct, mostly bipedal relatives. Allosauroidea is nested within this broader group of mostly meat-eating dinosaurs.
Allosaurus: Allosaurus is a large Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur known chiefly from western North America. This genus gives Allosauroidea its name and is its most familiar member.
Middle Jurassic: The Middle Jurassic is the geological epoch spanning about 174 to 163 million years ago. The earliest known allosauroid fossils come from this interval.
Phylogenetics: Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms. Allosauroidea is defined and revised through hypotheses of shared ancestry.
Mesozoic marine revolution: The Mesozoic marine revolution was an evolutionary escalation between marine predators and their prey during the Mesozoic Era. The rise of giant carcharodontosaurids coincided with broader Mesozoic ecological change.
Tetanurae: Tetanurae is a theropod clade that includes birds and many large-bodied, stiff-tailed dinosaurs. Allosauroidea belongs to this major branch of theropod evolution.
Saurophaganax: Saurophaganax is a large Late Jurassic theropod genus known from fossils in Oklahoma. Its classification among allosaurids has made it a notable North American relative.
Late Jurassic: The Late Jurassic is the geological epoch spanning about 163 to 145 million years ago. Allosauroids became widespread and well represented in fossils during this epoch.
Cladistics: Cladistics classifies organisms by grouping them according to shared derived characteristics. This method is used to test which fossil theropods belong within the clade.
Dinosaur provincialism: Dinosaur provincialism is the geographic differentiation of dinosaur communities across regions. Distinct allosauroid lineages occupied different continents and faunal provinces.

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