Megalosaurus, BUCKLAND, 1824

Benson, Roger 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), pp. 882-935 : 913

PALAEOBIOLOGY OF MEGALOSAURUS

Megalosaurus is one of the largest Middle Jurassic theropods known. The best preserved femur (BMNH 31806) is 805 mm long, compared with 543 mm for Piatnitzkysaurus (PVL 4073). Many other Middle Jurassic theropods, such as Condorraptor ( Rauhut, 2005) , Gasosaurus ( Dong & Tang, 1985) , Poekilopleuron ( Allain & Chure, 2002) and Xuanhanosaurus ( Dong, 1984) , were also ‘medium’-sized. BMNH 31806 has a minimum circumference of 302 mm. This indicates a body mass of around 943 kg, following the equations of Anderson, Hall-Martin & Russell (1985), although this equation tends to underestimate body mass relative to three-dimensional modelling tech- niques, such as that of Henderson (1999): 7224 kg for Tyrannosaurus rex relative to 4500 kg estimated by Anderson et al. (1985).

Megalosaurus was well ossified relative to other large-bodied tetanurans. This is indicated by the rugose maxillary interdental plates, fused and overgrown scapulocoracoid suture and longitudinal striae on the ischium and hindlimb bones. It also has a relatively robust forearm ( Table 2). These factors may indicate that Megalosaurus was a stout, muscular animal. However, the hindlimb was not as robust as that of Torvosaurus ( Table 4).