Torvosaurus

Torvosaurus is a genus of large megalosaurine theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 165 to 146.5 million years ago during the Callovian to Tithonian ages of the late Middle and Late Jurassic period in what is now Colorado, Portugal, Germany, and possibly England, Spain, Tanzania, and Uruguay. It contains two currently recognized species, Torvosaurus tanneri and Torvosaurus gurneyi, plus a third unnamed species from Germany.

A picture published with the record for Torvosaurus.

Etemenanki3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MegalosaurinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
10 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 12 million years on record.

The record covers at least 161.5 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 165.3 Mya to 143.1 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 28 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 27 of 28 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 28 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 2 occurrences152–151 Mya — about 3 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 3 occurrences150–150 Mya — about 3 occurrences150–149 Mya — about 2 occurrences149–148 Mya — about 1 occurrence148–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–146 Mya — about 1 occurrence146–145 Mya — about 1 occurrence145–144 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences143–143 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences161.5 Mya149.2 Mya165.8 Mya142.6 Mya

28 occurrences of Torvosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

28 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Morrison — 38.58°N, 108.40°WMorrison — 38.52°N, 105.21°WMorrison — 41.89°N, 106.00°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 44.63°N, 107.81°WMorrison — 44.05°N, 107.46°WMorrison — 42.04°N, 106.39°WMorrison — 41.88°N, 106.11°WLourinhã — 39.40°N, 9.13°WLourinhã — 39.33°N, 9.36°WLourinhã — 39.20°N, 9.12°WLourinhã — 39.27°N, 9.33°WLourinhã — 39.22°N, 9.34°WLourinhã — 39.17°N, 9.36°WTendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°ETendaguru — 9.84°S, 39.39°ETacuarembó — 31.80°S, 56.13°WTacuarembó — 31.87°S, 55.90°WTacuarembó — 31.70°S, 55.96°WOrnatenton — 52.26°N, 8.81°E"Korallenoolith" — 52.04°N, 9.69°ESüntel — 51.90°N, 10.48°E

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The named rock units Torvosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Torvosaurus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Torvosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

143 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Torvosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

16 references

Each of the 28 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 4 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Torvosaurus

Credit
Etemenanki3
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
hsejira
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegalosaurinae through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Galton and Jensen 1979