Allosaurus (name meaning "different lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in Europe and North America during the Jurassic period. Three species are known: A. fragilis, A. jimmadseni, and A. europaeus, with the third species being featured in The Watering Hole.
Physical Description[]
Allosaurus was one of the largest Jurassic predators known, growing an average of 28 feet to 32 feet (8.5 to 9.7 meters), though several possible specimens suggest it could have reached lengths of up to 40 feet (12.1 meters). It had a large skull with eye ridges, and claws designed for gripping. It ate many different dinosaurs, such as the Dryosaurus, the stegosaurid Stegosaurus, and even young sauropods like Diplodocus and Apatosaurus.
Due to its large size and 'new-age' design, the previous apex Jurassic predator Ceratosaurus was very hard competition since it was around the same size, but Allosaurus itself had to deal with harder competition from a large megalosaurid named Torvosaurus as well as the also bigger Saurophaganax.
One particularly well-preserved specimen, MOR693 nicknamed "Big Al", was found in fall of 1991 in Big Horn County, Wyoming. While Allosaurus was a hunter, it was also a scavenger. It would find dead animals or animals dying to feast on. "Big Al" had many different injuries from throughout its short, seven year life, yet healing and surviving all but the last one, a severely infected toe wound. Big Al had 19 different Injuries, several on the ribs and vertebrae. This would have left the animal unable to hunt, and it would have starved and/or died of thirst.
Skull[]
Allosaurus' skull was double hinged. This allowed it to open its mouth extremely wide, allowing it to have a huge bite radius. One hinge was near the front of the jaw like a snake's, and the other was near the back of the jawbone. However, recent studies seem to show that Allosaurus had a relatively low bite force, much less than the value of sharks and crocodiles and even inferior to that of most big cats, despite being much bigger.
Contrary to the popular theory that Allosaurus used its skull like a hatchet, as, despite the purported wide mouth gap, Allosaurus was not able to open its jaws far enough to slam them down to any effective degree. Instead, it was likely using its jaws like giant sheers, biting into the flanks of other dinosaurs and ripping off chunks of flesh.
In Dinosaur Revolution[]
The Watering Hole[]
It first appears with a mother and her offspring sleeping at night, and a noisy Ornitholestes wakes them up. The mother goes back to sleep, but the sound continues, and she roars at the nearby Ornitholestes. The adult Allosaurus goes back to sleep, but this time the babies wake up from the noise and she comes over to it, decapitating it before going back to her babies and going to sleep, before another Ornitholestes wakes her up...
In the morning, Broken Jaw’s siblings are eating the Ornitholestes. Broken Jaw is playing with a Ornitholestes skull, possibly the one from the body. He grabs it and throws it very, very far, making it bounce. The baby follows it as it hits the foot of an adult Dinheirosaurus. The baby Allosaurus doesn't leave and one baby Dinheirosaurus (dubbed Woodstock by fans) whacks him with his whip-like tail, breaking his lower jaw before leaving him. The mother comes, but she abandons him. Despite his repeated cries, she does not return.
Amazingly, he survives somehow on his own, and his jaw heals. He lives at a watering hole, where a Rhamphorhynchus feasts on morsels of his last meal without the Allosaurus attacking him. He goes to the watering hole, after the arrival of the Dinheirosaurus (one of which is Woodstock), and hides behind a bush.
He then stalks a limping juvenile, when Woodstock comes out from behind him and whips his tail, knocking a dry tree down. The Allosaurus opens his mouth, and the tail lands in his mouth, and after a brief tug-of-war battle, he rips off the tail and brings it to eat in his spot and he holds it down while eating it.
He wakes up under his tree and goes to get a drink from the watering hole. He comes back to find an Ornitholestes on him after it fell from the tree, and chases after it. However, he loses it and resorted to hunting the juvenile Dinheirosaurus again, but a roar from a Torvosaurus distracts him.
He wakes up and sees a family of two adult Miragaia and two young. However, the Torvosaurus appears and grabs a baby, shaking and killing it. The Allosaurus is impressed as the Torvosaurus disappears with its kill. He then decides to go to the watering hole for just some quick sips of water.
He goes to the watering hole again, but after he drinks, he sees the Torvosaurus has taken his spot. He goes to it, while its resting, and gives a threat display, and when the Torvosaurus doesn't even flinch, he whacks it with his tail, and the Torvosaurus gives its full attention and attacks him, injuring his pelvis. But the Allosaurus escapes when the Torvosaurus gets distracted by the Ornitholestes attacking the Rhamphorhynchus. He retreats to a safe spot where he licks his wounds.
When the Torvosaurus appears and attacks and causes immense chaos at the watering hole, the Allosaurus appears again, and bites down on the megalosaur's neck, but the Torvosaurus throws him down. Fortunately, before the Torvosaurus disembowels him, a Dinheirosaurus crushes the Torvosaurus. The Allosaurus watches and then eats it.
He appears next to the sauropod he attacked months earlier, and drinks the water, which is no more than a large puddle. After all the creatures in the watering hole leave, he stays behind, not knowing why they are leaving. Eventually, enough time later, the rains arrive.