At ScienceOnline 2013, marine biologist and Deep Sea News blogger Al Dove asked me about the reputation of Allosaurus. The 150 million year old hypercarnivore has often been treated as a smaller, weaker forerunner of the later Tyrannosaurus, as if the bones of Allosaurus testify “The one who comes after me is more powerful than I.” In the dinosaur books I grew up reading, Allosaurus was presented as the Jurassic theropod prototype which reached an apex in Tyrannosaurus, just before the non-avian dinosaurs were snuffed out. Al wanted to know whether such representations were accurate.

As I told Al, I hate to see Allosaurus get shortchanged. While the typical Allosaurus skeleton you’re bound to see in a museum