{{Short description|Extinct superfamily of Dinosaurs}} {{Automatic taxobox | name = Megalosauroids | fossil_range = Middle Jurassic - Late Cretaceous, {{fossilrange|earliest=Toarcian|170|94|latest=Maastrichtian}}{{Period fossil range|Jurassic-Cretaceous|earliest=Toarcian|170|94|latest=Maastrichtian}}<small>Probably originated since Toarcian and Possible Campanian-Maastrichtian records<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lacerda |first1=M. B. S. |last2=Bittencourt |first2=J. S. |last3=Hutchinson |first3=J. R. |year=2023 |title=Macroevolutionary patterns in the pelvis, stylopodium and zeugopodium of megalosauroid theropod dinosaurs and their importance for locomotor function |journal=Royal Society Open Science |volume=10 |issue=8 |at=230481 |doi=10.1098/rsos.230481 |pmid=37593714 |pmc=10427828 |bibcode=2023RSOS...1030481L |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Ameghiniana2025>{{Cite journal |last1=Olmedo-Romaña |first1=G. J. |last2=Wilson Mantilla |first2=J. A. |last3=Tejada |first3=J. V. |last4=Antoine |first4=P. O. |last5=Burga-Castillo |first5=M. A. |last6=Aliaga-Castillo |first6=A. V. |last7=Varas-Malca |first7=R. |last8=Benites-Palomino |first8=A. |last9=Salas-Gismondi |first9=R. |title=Theropod and sauropod dinosaurs from the Campanian-Maastrichtian Bagua Basin of Perú, including the first possible report of Spinosauridae in western South America |year=2025 |journal=Ameghiniana |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=259–287 |doi=10.5710/AMGH.13.02.2025.3627 |url=https://www.ameghiniana.org.ar/index.php/ameghiniana/article/view/3627 |url-access=subscription }}</ref></small> | image = Torvosaurus Museum of Ancient Life 2.jpg | image_caption = ''Torvosaurus'' skeletal mount, Museum of Ancient Life | image2 = Spinosaurus swimming.jpg | image2_caption = ''Spinosaurus'' skeletal mount, National Geographic Museum | taxon = Megalosauroidea | authority = Huxley, 1889 | type_species = {{extinct}}''Megalosaurus bucklandii'' | type_species_authority = Mantell, 1827 | subdivision_ranks = Subgroups | subdivision = *{{extinct}}''Asfaltovenator''? *{{extinct}}''Chuandongocoelurus''? *{{extinct}}''Cruxicheiros''? *{{extinct}}''Dandakosaurus''? *{{extinct}}''Gasosaurus''? *{{extinct}}''Juravenator''? *{{extinct}}''Kaijiangosaurus''? *{{extinct}}''Lourinhanosaurus''? *{{extinct}}''Monolophosaurus''? *{{extinct}}''Nedcolbertia''? *{{extinct}}''Sciurumimus''? *{{extinct}}''Yunyangosaurus'' * {{extinct}}'''Piatnitzkysauridae'''? * {{extinct}}'''Megalosauria''' ** {{extinct}}''Streptospondylus'' ** {{extinct}}'''Megalosauridae''' ** {{extinct}}'''Spinosauridae''' | synonyms = * Spinosauroidea <small>Stromer, 1915</small> * Torvosauroidea <small>Nopcsa, 1915</small> * Spinosauria <small>Olshevsky, 1991</small> }}
'''Megalosauroidea''' (meaning 'great/big lizard forms') is a superfamily (or clade) of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period. The group is defined as ''Megalosaurus bucklandii'' and all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with it than with ''Allosaurus fragilis'' or ''Passer domesticus''.<ref name="benson2010" /> Members of the group include ''Spinosaurus'', ''Megalosaurus'', and ''Torvosaurus''. They are possibly paraphyletic in nature with respect to Allosauroidea, which is to say some members of this superfamily might be closer to Allosauroids than to each other, which is undesirable in cladistics.
==Classification== 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.<ref name="benson2010">{{cite journal |last=Benson |first=R.B.J. |year=2010 |title=A description of ''Megalosaurus bucklandii'' (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |doi= 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00569.x |volume=158 |issue=4 |pages=882–935 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
The classification of megalosauroids follows a study by Benson in 2010. Note that several "wildcard"<ref name="benson2010" /> taxa that are probably megalosauroids were excluded from the final tree, including ''Magnosaurus'', ''Piveteausaurus'' and ''Streptospondylus''.<ref name="benson2010" /> Later, ''Magnosaurus'' and ''Streptospondylus'' were added in the final tree.<ref name="bensonetal2010">{{Cite journal | author = Benson, R.B.J., Carrano, M.T and Brusatte, S.L. | year = 2010 | title = A new clade of archaic large-bodied predatory dinosaurs (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) that survived to the latest Mesozoic | journal = Naturwissenschaften | volume = 97 | issue = 1 | pages = 71–78 | doi = 10.1007/s00114-009-0614-x | pmid=19826771 | bibcode=2010NW.....97...71B| s2cid = 22646156 }} [https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs00114-009-0614-x Supporting Information]</ref> These are known from remains too fragmentary to be reliably classified.<ref name="benson2010" /> 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.<ref name="bensonetal2010" />
{{clade| style=font-size:85%;line-height:85% |label1='''Megalosauroidea''' |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Xuanhanosaurus'' |2={{clade |1=''Marshosaurus'' |2={{clade |1=''Condorraptor'' |2=''Piatnitzkysaurus'' }} }} }} |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Chuandongocoelurus'' |2=''Monolophosaurus'' 100 px}} |2={{clade |label1=Spinosauridae |1={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Baryonyx'' |2=''Suchomimus'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100 px</span>}} |2={{clade |1=''Irritator'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100 px</span> |2=''Spinosaurus'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100px</span>}} }} |label2=Megalosauridae |2={{clade |label1=Eustreptospondylinae |1={{clade |1=''Eustreptospondylus'' |2={{clade |1=''Magnosaurus'' |2=''Streptospondylus'' }} }} |label2=Megalosaurinae |2={{clade |1=''Duriavenator'' |2={{clade |1=''Afrovenator'' 100 px |2=''Dubreuillosaurus'' }} |3={{clade |1=''Megalosaurus'' |2=''Torvosaurus'' 100px}} }} }} }} }} }} }}
Carrano, Benson & Sampson (2012) performed much larger phylogenetic analysis of the Tetanurae that includes more taxa. They used the clade name '''Megalosauria''' (Bonaparte, 1850) in their analysis and defined it as the node comprising ''Megalosaurus'', ''Spinosaurus'', their most recent common ancestor, and all its descendants. Furthermore, a new megalosauroid family Piatnitzkysauridae was named to include all megalosauroids more closely related to ''Piatnitzkysaurus'' than to either ''Spinosaurus'' or ''Megalosaurus''. Within Megalosauridae a new subfamily was named, Afrovenatorinae, to include all megalosaurids more closely related to ''Afrovenator'' than to ''Megalosaurus''. Unlike Benson ''et al.'', 2010, they recovered ''Poekilopleuron'' as an afrovenatorine, while ''Xuanhanosaurus'' was recovered as the basalmost metriacanthosaurid. However, the position of these taxa is very unstable, and their exclusion from the analysis gave more resolved and stable cladogram. ''Streptospondylus'' was also excluded to get more resolved Megalosauridae and Afrovenatorinae. The Chinese tetanuran ''Leshansaurus'' was included for the first time in a phylogenetic analysis, and was recovered as an afrovenatorine. Both ''Chuandongocoelurus'' and ''Monolophosaurus'' were found to be just outside Orionides. The cladogram presented here follows that study.<ref name=tetanurans2012>{{Cite journal | last1 = Carrano | first1 = M. T. | last2 = Benson | first2 = R. B. J. | last3 = Sampson | first3 = S. D. | doi = 10.1080/14772019.2011.630927 | title = The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) | journal = Journal of Systematic Palaeontology | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages = 211–300| year = 2012 | bibcode = 2012JSPal..10..211C | s2cid = 85354215 }}</ref>
{{clade| style=font-size:85%;line-height:85% |label1=Tetanurae |1={{clade |1=''Cryolophosaurus'' 100 px |2=''"Dilophosaurus" sinensis'' 100 px |3={{clade |1=''Chuandongocoelurus'' |2=''Monolophosaurus'' 100 px |label3=Orionides |3={{clade |label1=Avetheropoda |1={{clade |1=Allosauroidea 120px |label2=Coelurosauria |2={{clade |1=''Lourinhanosaurus'' |2=Other coelurosaurians <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100 px</span>}} }} |label2='''Megalosauroidea''' |2={{clade |label1=Piatnitzkysauridae |1={{clade |1=''Marshosaurus'' |2={{clade |1=''Condorraptor'' |2=''Piatnitzkysaurus'' }} }} |label2=Megalosauria |2={{clade |1=''Streptospondylus'' |label2=Spinosauridae |2={{clade |1={{clade |1=''Baryonyx'' |2=''Suchomimus'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100 px</span>}} |2={{clade |1=''Angaturama'' |2=''Irritator'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100 px</span> |3=''Spinosaurus'' <span style="{{MirrorH}}">100px</span>}} }} |label3=Megalosauridae |3={{clade |label1=Eustreptospondylinae |1={{clade |1=''Eustreptospondylus'' }} |2={{clade |label1=Megalosaurinae |1={{clade |1=''Duriavenator'' |2={{clade |1=''Megalosaurus'' |2=''Torvosaurus'' 100px}} }} |label2=Afrovenatorinae |2={{clade |1=''Afrovenator'' 100 px |2={{clade |1=''Dubreuillosaurus'' |2=''Magnosaurus'' }} |3={{clade |1=''Leshansaurus'' |2=''Piveteausaurus'' }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }}
In 2019, Rauhut and Pol described ''Asfaltovenator vialidadi'', a basal allosauroid displaying a mosaic of primitive and derived features seen within Tetanurae. Their phylogenetic analysis found traditional Megalosauroidea to represent a basal grade of carnosaurs, paraphyletic with respect to Allosauroidea.<ref name="Rauhut2019">{{Cite journal|last1=Rauhut|first1=Oliver W. M.|last2=Pol|first2=Diego|date=2019-12-11|title=Probable basal allosauroid from the early Middle Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina highlights phylogenetic uncertainty in tetanuran theropod dinosaurs|journal=Scientific Reports|language=en|volume=9|issue=1|pages=18826|doi=10.1038/s41598-019-53672-7|pmid=31827108|pmc=6906444|bibcode=2019NatSR...918826R |issn=2045-2322}}</ref>
{{clade| style=font-size:100%;line-height:80% |grouplabel1={{clade labels |label1=traditional Megalosauroidea |top1=33%}} |label1=Carnosauria |1={{clade |1=''Monolophosaurus''100 px |2={{clade |1=Spinosauridae<span style="{{MirrorH}}">100px</span>|barbegin1=midnightblue |2={{clade |1=Megalosauridae100px|bar1=midnightblue |label2=Allosauroidea |2={{clade |1=''Xuanhanosaurus''|bar1=midnightblue |2={{clade |1=Piatnitzkysauridae120px|barend1=midnightblue |2={{clade |1=''Asfaltovenator'' |2={{clade |1=Metriacanthosauridae120px |2={{clade |1=''Allosaurus''120px |2=Carcharodontosauria<span style="{{MirrorH}}">120px</span>}} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }}
==See also== {{Portal|Dinosaurs}} * Carnosauria * Orionides
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Theropoda|T.}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q132202}}
Category:Megalosauroidea Category:Dinosaur superfamilies