Acrocanthosaurus, meaning “high-spined lizard”, was a large 35 foot long meat-eating dinosaur which lived in North America during the middle of the Cretaceous Period approximately 115-110 million years ago. It is distinctive for the unusually tall neural spines on the top of its vertebrae, which would have given it a prominent ridge running down the middle of its back from the base of its skull down to the tip of its tail.
Fossils of this animal were first found in southeastern Oklahoma during the 1940s, and it was officially named in 1950. So far, five partial skeletons of this animal have been found within Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming belonging to four adults and one juvenile. Fossils which might belong to Acrocanthosaurus (mostly consisting of isolated teeth) have also been found in Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, and Maryland. It has also been often stated that Acrocanthosaurus was one of the dinosaurs which made the footprints in the famous Paluxy River dinosaur footprint trackway from Glen Rose, Texas.
Acrocanthosaurus lived alongside other dinosaurs such as Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus, Astrodon, Zephyrosaurus, Microvenator, and Sauropelta. It might have been the largest meat-eating dinosaur within North America during that time.
Acrocanthosaurus. © Jason R. Abdale (November 19, 2023).
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Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized
DINOSAURS AND BARBARIANS 
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