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D
w a r f A l l o s a u r
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 112
to 104 million years ago - Early Cretaceous period |
The
evidence for the dwarf allosaur is controversial being based on a
single ankle bone found in the Otway Range, near Melbourne, Australia.
This bone has been identified as belonging to a smaller descendent
of the fearsome Jurassic carnivore, Allosaurus. By comparison to other
carnivorous theropod dinosaurs, the dwarf allosaur was about 6 metres
long and could rear up to about 2.2 metres high. Although smallish
by theropod standards it was the largest predator yet found from the
Early Cretaceous period.
Before this
discovery it had been thought that allosaurs died out 30 million
years earlier. Some scientists think that the dwarf allosaur survived
its cousins by adapting to the cold south.
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