© Ghedoghedo
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© Ghedoghedo
– Creative Commons
NameTorvosaurus tanneri SizeLarge EraMesozoic PeriodJurassic FoodCarnivore HabitatNorth America and Europe NatureTerrestrial
What is a Torvosaurus?
Torvosaurus was a theropod with an iron constitution that existed in the last phase of the Jurassic period. Given its bipedal nature, it moved on two powerful legs, had short but strong arms, large claws on the thumbs and large sharp teeth.
The first discovery occurred in the 1970s in the Morrison Formation in the United States, North America.. So the discovery consisted of some bones from his skull, the upper arm bone, the pelvis, the bones of the hand, parts of the spine and a bone from the forearm.
In 2006, an incomplete upper jaw was found in Portugal and assigned to the species Torvosaurus tanneri. It was 63 cm long, which was considerably larger than the 47 cm upper jaw of the specimen found in the United States.
When Christophe Hendrick and Octávio Mateus described it in 2014 they renamed them as Torvosaurus gurneyi.
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Torvosaurus discovery
The Torvosaurus discoveries occurred in two places. The first happened in the United States and the second in Portugal. It began in 1971 when Vivian Jones in Delta, Colorado in the United States found a gigantic claw that corresponded to the thumb of a Theropod. He found her at Calico Gulch Quarry in Moffat.
The find was received by Alvin Jensen, a collector at Brighan Young University. It had abundant bones of giant theropods that were found in the Morrison Formation.
Since 1972, excavations began by Jensen and Kenneth Stadtman, who found parts of the skull, pelvis, upper arm, spine and forearm. In 1979 the specimen was described and named by Jensen and Malcolm Galton as Torvosaurus tanneri.
Significant additional material was reported by Jensen in 1985, also covering parts of the skull. Later in 1991 the fossils found in Colorado were described in more detail.
It originally consisted of bones in the upper part of the forearm, the humeri and the bones of the forearm, together with paratype remains that included dorsal bones of the hip and hand. If the material from 1985 is added to this, only the shoulder girdle and femur remain.
The holotype and paratype samples make up two adult specimens and one juvenile. In 1991 it was concluded that the evidence supporting that the forelimbs in the holotype were related was insufficient. As a consequence, the left humerus was designated as a lectotype.
A year later Robert T. Bakker and team published research on fossil remains of a theropod found in Como Bluff, Wyoming. This consisted of parts of a skull, shoulder girdle, ribs and pelvis. They named it Edmarka rex and they had a size that competed with T. rex. They are currently considered a junior synonym of Torvosaurus.
There was a new discovery in 2000 when a new specimen was identified in Portugal, by Octavio Mateus and Miguel Telles Antures. They were found in the Lourinhã Formation and were classified as Torvosaurus tanneri.
In 2014 it was renamed Torvosaurus T. gurneyi and noted as the largest theropod known in Europe.
Finally, in 2020, a fragmentary maxilla related to Torvosaurus was described, which was in the Callovan Ornatenton Formation in Germany. This is an ancient record of the genus that suggests that megalosauruses appeared in Europe.
What does Torvosaurus mean?
Torvosaurus comes from Latin torvus What does it mean wild and from the Greek term sauros what is lizard. So the full meaning is wild lizard.
The epithet tanneri was added in honor of Nathan Eldon Tanner, who was the first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the religious institution to which Brigham Young University belongs.
The epithet gurneyi is in tribute to James Gurney who was the creator of the book series Dinotopia.
The family Megalosauridae
Torvosaurus was a megalosaurid theropod. That is, it belongs to the monophyletic family Megalosauridae. It is closely related to the Spinosauridae. Its most representative specimens are the Afrovenator, Eustreptospondylus, Megalosaurus and Torvosaurus.
They existed in the Jurassic and were part of the first and most important radiations of theropods. They were formed by basal tetanurae and were made up of the subfamilies Afrovenatorinae and Megalosaurinae. There was also the genus Eustreptospondylus which is considered basal. However, it is an unresolved taxon with different characteristics than those previously mentioned.
The Megalosaurid that defined the family was Megalosaurus bucklandii, described by William Buckland in 1824. It was in fact the first dinosaur studied and was the starting point of the entire Dinosauria clade. They had appeared in Pangea before Gondwana and Laurasia split. So they may have been present in two different parts of the world during the Jurassic.
Torvosaurus Vs Saurophaganax
Let’s learn a little more about dinosaurs by comparing their characteristics, in order to establish which one would have won in a battle.
Torvosaurus Characteristics
The Torvosaurus was a dinosaur that could measure about 12 meters long and was about 2.5 meters high at the hips. Its body volume could be between 2 and 3 tons. It boasted a long, narrow snout that helped it crush bones and tear meat with ease.
Some scientists suggested the idea that it was not a hunter, due to its deterrent aspect, which would allow it to win any confrontation easily. Others think that he had everything to be the apex predator in his habitat.
It would have easily preyed on herbivores such as Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurs, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus and Stegosaurus. It could also have attacked and devoured other carnivores as a result of a confrontation, in an opportunistic sense.
Its fossils have been found in the United States and Portugal. This would be due to the separation of Pangea, and possible emigration through land bridges.
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Characteristics of Saurophaganax
Your name means master lizard eater. She was a little over 13 meters tall and her weight was also around 3 tons. It was a carnivorous theropod, the main predator of its time that hunted Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus. It is possible that it was also a scavenger.
Some paleontologists think that it was a developed Allosauros. But other specialists claim that there is not enough fossil material to differentiate them, that the only difference is their vertebrae.
It could have been conflictingly large, as its size would have required a very large amount of food, making it difficult for it to find food on a daily basis. Possibly this would have led him to steal food from other dinosaurs.
The match
You can imagine the battle with the Torvosaurus coming between the Saurophaganax and its nest, which would have caused it to roar furiously. This would have been the Torvosaurus’s opportunity to bite his neck, causing a serious injury.
Said injury would have been enough to make him move slower. Added to this was that he bit him on the leg and used his tail to knock him to the ground, causing Saurophaganax to become unconscious.
Thinking that his opponent was fainted, the Torvosaurus became careless. The Saurphaganax stood up and counterattacked by biting him in the neck. But in this case the attack is lethal since it delivers a ferocious bite that breaks its neck.
With the battle won, the Saurophaganax calls out to its family and they all feed on the remains of the Torvosaurus.
The Saurphaganax makes it clear that it is an evolved and ferocious allosaurus, with a great bite force and a fearsome size.
Torvosaurus Characteristics
The study of the considerable fossil remains of Torvosaurus has allowed scientists to learn more about this species. Keep reading to learn more about this dinosaur.
Classification
Torvosaurus is closely related to the older Megalosaurs, but appears to be more advanced. The family Megalosauridae is commonly the basal branch of Tetanurae, less derived than carnosaurs or coelurosaurs and is probably related to spinosaurus.
Size
The size of Torvosaurus is actually estimated, since its fossil record is incomplete. It has been calculated that the North American specimen It was about 9 meters long and weighed 1.95 tons.
On the other hand, the discovery of Portugal was greater. The lower jaw found in 2006 measured 63 centimeters, suggesting a skull length of 158 centimeters. This makes it a much more developed specimen than the North American specimen whose skull is estimated to have measured 118 centimeters, with a lower jaw 47 centimeters long.
In this case, the Portuguese specimen was comparable to Tyrannosaurus rex, which places it among the large theropods. The femur found belonged to another Torvosaurus that is thought to have been 11 meters long.
Feeding
Torvosaurus’ diet possibly consisted of smaller sauropods and stegosaurs. Although it was not the apex predator, it was quite similar to T. rex, which made it a threat to other dinosaurs.
It is also possible that they fed with iguanodonts and small ornithopods. It was supposedly robust, something that could have slowed it down. It is thought that it could reach up to 32 kilometers per hour. Therefore, it is most likely that it actually ambushed its prey.
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Reproduction
Like other reptiles, megalosaurid dinosaurs mated during the corresponding season. The female was the one who laid the eggs, which hatched after a certain time. This is how the offspring were born and were cared for by their parents until they achieved the capacity for independence.
Life expectancy
It has been suggested that Torvosaurus tanneri could live 25 to 30 years.. This is based on the fact that predators lived shorter lives than sauropods, something that applied perfectly to Torvosaurus.
Who did he live with?
Carnivores like Torvosaurus were large during the Jurassic. They were solitary and as they were predators they consumed stegosaurs and also other sauropods. In the same way it coexisted with the Allosaurus, the Stegosaurus, the Ceratosaurus and the Camptosaurus.
Habitat
The habitat in which Torvosaurus lived was in the Morrison Formation during the…