Southwestern dragon

© 2006 Kyle R. Lindsey

A rough sketch of the Acrocanthosaurus atokensis specimen NCSM 14345 as displayed in the Black Hills Museum of Natural History. Lighter than but as long as the Tyrannosaurus rex specimens BHI 3033 and MOR 555 at 41 feet, this specimen puts A. atokensis as one of the largest of predatory dinosaurs to be collected. The femur length is roughly 1280 mm, which is a bit shy to the femur length of the Tyrannosaurus PR2081 --otherwise known as SUE-- at just over 1300 mm.

The specimen of A. atokensis was recovered from the Antlers formation of McCurtain County, Oklahoma. The Antlers formation is known from the Trinity Group and dated as Aptian* in age. Possible fragments of the same species are known from the Ruby Ranch member of the Cedar Mountain formation, which happens to be of the same age as the Antlers. The A. atokensis is also known from north central Texas and thought to be responsible for the larger theropod tracks in Glen Rose.

Taxonomy:

Theropoda Marsh, 1881
Carnosauria von Huene, 1920
Allosauroidea Currie and Zhao, 1993
Allosauridae Marsh, 1878

A more complete and revised version of this sketch (now what is seen) will be included in a later illustration displaying a panoply of various palaeopathologic injuries in dinosaurs, both predator and prey species. The later work will be fittingly entitled "Red in tooth and claw."

*Aptian is a sub-division of the early Cretaceous period that spans from 121 to 112.2 million years before the present Holocene.