Megalosauroidea

Unikonta

Megalosauroids Temporal range: Middle Jurassic - Early Cretaceous, 170–93 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Life restoration of the megalosaurid Eustreptospondylus.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Branch:	Tetanurae
Superfamily:	†Megalosauroidea Huxley, 1889
Families
Megalosauridae (type) Spinosauridae
Synonyms
Spinosauroidea Stromer, 1915 Torvosauroidea Nopcsa, 1915

Megalosauroidea is a group of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period.

Classification

The clade Megalosauroidea is defined as Megalosaurus bucklandii and all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with it than with Allosaurus fragilis or Passer domesticus.^[1]

The name Spinosauroidea is sometimes used in place of Megalosauroidea. The superfamily Spinosauroidea was named in 1915 by Ernst Stromer. It is a synonym of Megalosauroidea in almost all modern phylogenetic analyses, and it is therefore redundant. Spinosauroidea was defined as a clade in 1998 by Paul Sereno as the node clade containing the common ancestor of Spinosaurus and Torvosaurus and all its descendants. Thomas Holtz in 2004 defined a branch clade with the same name containing all species closer to Spinosaurus than to Passer domesticus. The ICZN holds that even clade names (which do not yet have any governing body) should be replaced if having a traditional taxon suffix and being synonyms of ranked taxa at or below the superfamily level. The seniority of Megalosauroidea was not followed in most paleontological literature during the 1990s and early 2000s. A series of papers supporting the validity of Megalosaurus as a genus, the relationships of megalosauroids, and the placement of "spinosauroids" among them, published between 2008 and 2010 argued that Megalosauroidea was in fact the valid name for the group.^[1]

The classification of megalosauroids follows a study by Benson in 2010. Note that several "wildcard"^[1] taxa that are probably megalosauroids were excluded from the final tree, including Magnosaurus, Piveteausaurus and Streptospondylus.^[1] Later, Magnosaurus and Streptospondylus were added in the final tree.^[2] These are known from remains too fragmentary to be reliably classified.^[1] Some of these 'wildcard' taxa, such as Poekilopleuron and Megaraptor, have been considered possible megalosauroids in the past, but the analysis found that they are more likely allosauroids.^[2]

Megalosauroidea	Xuanhanosaurus Marshosaurus Condorraptor Piatnitzkysaurus Chuandongocoelurus Monolophosaurus Spinosauridae Baryonyx Suchomimus Irritator Spinosaurus Megalosauridae Eustreptospondylus Magnosaurus Streptospondylus unnamed Duriavenator Afrovenator Dubreuillosaurus Megalosaurus Torvosaurus

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Benson, R.B.J. (2010). "A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158 (4): 882–935. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00569.x. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Benson, R.B.J., Carrano, M.T and Brusatte, S.L. (2010). "A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic". Naturwissenschaften 97 (1): 71–78. Bibcode 2010NW.....97...71B. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0614-x. PMID 19826771.  Supporting Information

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