Every dinosaur that's recreated is important, but some also capture our imaginations. The Allosaurus is one such animal. It is believed that in its original environment, it was squarely at the top of the food chain. I'm interested to discover if that's true, given the opportunity. |
Allosaurus is a genus of carnosaurian dinosaur in the Jurassic World Evolution series. Originating from Late Jurassic North America, Allosaurus is one of the most well-known theropod dinosaurs.
Allosaurus was added to Evolution with the release of the Fallen Kingdom Dinosaur Update. The species becomes available to Jurassic World operations by progressing through the Science Division on Isla Sorna, and can subsequently be researched and found in the Morrison Formation and the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry dig sites.
History
Allosaurus was originally intended to be displayed as an attraction in Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar. However, they hadn't been cloned at the time of the 1993 incident, with a 1996 asset catalogue of the dinosaurs present on Nublar and InGen's Site B facility on Isla Sorna, reported that a mere twelve percent of the Allosaurus genome had been completed.[1]
Subsequently, however, Allosaurus specimens were bred for Jurassic World on Isla Nublar, after it opened to the public in 2004. Given the presence of juvenile Allosaurus on the island in 2018, it is likely that a breeding population existed on Isla Nublar.[2] During the eruption of Mount Sibo in 2018, one juvenile Allosaurus was encountered during a stampede of dinosaurs. Several Allosaurus were transported off the island to the mansion home of Benjamin Lockwood in California. At least one was successfully sold at the Lockwood Manor auction, while the others were released into the wilds of northern California alongside numerous other species of dinosaur by Maisie Lockwood.[2]
A year after the events at Lockwood Manor, a fully mature Allosaurus was encountered in Big Rock National Park, where it was witnessed unsuccessfully hunting a family of Nasutoceratops. Subsequently, the predator turned its focus to a family of campers in a trailer, causing severe damage before being frightened away by a crossbow bolt fired by the camper's daughter Kadasha.[3] This same Allosaurus was then used in an attempt to assassinate Brooklynn.[4]
Four years after the incident at Lockwood Manor, an adult Allosaurus and a juvenile Allosaurus were present in the illegal Amber Clave Market of Valletta, Malta. The juvenile Allosaurus was seen fighting a juvenile Baryonyx, while the adult Allosaurus was freed from its cage and roamed the streets of Valletta alongside an adult Carnotaurus.[5]
Characteristics
Here's what concerns me about your latest dinosaur, the Allosaurus. That it's an apex predator? No. That it could bring down animals twice its size? Also no. Nope. Instead, my problem with the Allosaurus is that, unlike the T. rex, or even the Velociraptor, the Allosaurus seems... optimized. It's chaos locking in on a solution. Creating efficiencies. And that makes me nervous. |
One of the most fearsome dinosaurs ever to have roamed the earth, Allosaurus is a large, ferocious theropod dinosaur. Weighing up to 3.7 tons and measuring around 12 meters in length, it is one of the largest carnivores in the Evolution series. It bares exaggerated crests and spines running down its back. An unusually large number of fossil specimens also makes Allosaurus one of the best studied dinosaurs of all time. Its name translates to "Different Lizard". The apex predator of the Late Jurassic period, Allosaurus' enormous skull contains rows of large, serrated teeth for tearing flesh, while its long, powerful tail helps it to balance. Notable features of Allosaurus are a very strong skull and the ability to open its jaws extremely wide. However, it had a relatively weak bite force, unlike the largest theropods. The base genome of the Allosaurus is a blueish-grey body, a cream underbelly, light grey stripes covering its entire back, and a pair of red brow crests above its eyes.[2]
Gameplay
Evolution
Behaviour
Allosaurus is a large, solitary theropod that doesn't tolerate other large carnivores in their enclosure, even other Allosaurs, which can result in potentially fatal clashes. However, they can tolerate a decent number of other species in their enclosure, including small carnivores and herbivores. Allosaurus prefer large areas of open grassland to hunt in and prefer comparatively smaller areas of forest. The comfort threshold of the Allosaurus is high, comparable to Giganotosaurus, requiring powerful fences to be contained.
Available genomes
Fossil icon | Dig site | Quality | Number available |
---|---|---|---|
Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry | ā
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā |
1 3 4 4 | |
Morrison Formation | ā
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā |
1 3 8 4 |
Skins
Paleontology
Measuring between 8.5 and 12 m (28 and 40 ft) long and weighing between 1 and 4 t (2,204 and 8,818 lb), Allosaurus was one of the largest and most prolific predators of the Late Jurassic, found in North America and Portugal. The most known species of Allosaurus is A. fragilis; the other two known species are A. europaeus and A. jimmadseni. The only theropod dinosaurs of the time to have rivaled or exceeded Allosaurus in size would be the megalosaurid Torvosaurus and the allosaurids Epanterias and Saurophaganax; however, some paleontologists believe the latter of the three are larger specimens of Allosaurus, which if true, they would be named A. amplexus and A. maximus respectively.
While the first incomplete Allosaurus fossils were discovered in 1869, the first official discovery of Allosaurus fossils came in 1877, when Othniel Charles Marsh found fragments of an unknown dinosaur in Colorado, during the "Bone Wars" between Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. At the time, the fossils were so unlike any previously found dinosaur bones that Marsh named it Allosaurus, meaning "Different Lizard". Two years later, more fossils were unearthed by H. F. Hubbell, although the quality of the near-complete skeleton was not realized until 1908, after Cope had died. Major operations in the 1960s then uncovered over 45 specimens at the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. With thousands of fossils emerging in the intervening years, Allosaurus fossils are now among the most commonly discovered dinosaur bones. Allosaurus was widespread throughout North America, yet despite its success, its branch from the Allosauridae seems to haven't evolved any further beyond the Late Jurassic. However, relatives such as Acrocanthosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Giganotosaurus continued to thrive into the Cretaceous.
The bite of Allosaurus wasn't very strong and instead, it is theorized to have used its upper jaw like a hatchet to exsanguinate its prey, although the possibility of this hunting technique is still debated. It is also believed that Allosaurus also used its muscular, clawed arms to grapple onto its prey. It is often inferred to have been a pack hunter due to the large size of its prey and the existence of a number of "lair" sites with remains from several individuals found close together, earning it the popular moniker of king or "lion of the Jurassic". However, other evidence also shows these animals were frequently aggressive to one another and even scavenged carcasses of their own species. [6]
Paleoecology
Allosaurus lived around 155ā145 million years ago in the western United States ā most notably Utah as well as Colorado and Wyoming ā in the Morrison Formation, which at the time, was semiarid conifer forest environments with river-lining ferns throughout both distinct wet and dry seasons, and flat floodplains. Among the apex predators of its time and ecosystem, Allosaurus co-existed alongside dozens of other species of dinosaur, including the sauropods Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Camarasaurus, other herbivores such as Dryosaurus, Nanosaurus, Camptosaurus, and Stegosaurus, as well as carnivores such as Ceratosaurus, Ornitholestes, and the large megalosaurid theropod Torvosaurus.
Behind the scenes
Allosaurus first appeared in 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in juvenile form. Instead of directly using the movie asset like they did with the rest of the Fallen Kingdom dinosaurs, the development team built a completely new model depicting a fully grown Allosaurus, loosely based on the juvenile from the film. Audio files provided by Universal Pictures, however, were still used.
In 2019, the film canon design of an adult Allosaurus appears for the first time in Battle at Big Rock, which bears minimal resemblance to Evolution's Allosaurus. Despite there being an update dedicated to the short film, the Allosaurus in-game wasn't updated to be film accurate.
Gallery
References
- ā What Killed the Gene Guard Act?. (February 23, 2018). Dinosaur Protection Group. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ā 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bayona, J. A. (Director). (2018). Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom [Film]. Universal Pictures.
- ā Trevorrow, Colin. (Director). (2019). Battle at Big Rock [Short film]. Universal Pictures.
- ā Kreamer, S., Hammersley, A., Spielberg, S., Trevorrow, C., Marshall, F. (Executive Producers). (2024ā2024). Jurassic World Chaos Theory [TV series]. Universal Pictures; DreamWorks Animation Television.
- ā Trevorrow, Colin. (Director). (2022). Jurassic World Dominion [Film]. Universal Pictures.
- ā Davis, Nicola. (May 27, 2020). Allosaurus dinosaur suspected to be scavenging cannibal. The Guardian. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
External links
- Allosaurus on Wikipedia