Open Paleo

Metriacanthosauridae

Paul, 1988 Type genus Metriacanthosaurus

Its genera lived 174.7–125.8 million years ago Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous

Metriacanthosauridae is a family of allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that lived in Europe and Asia from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Zou and colleagues, 2025). The family is split into two lineages (Carrano, Benson and Sampson, 2012): Metriacanthosaurinae, containing Metriacanthosaurus, Siamotyrannus and Sinraptor, and a second group formed by Yangchuanosaurus and its close relatives. Its members span a wide range of body sizes, and their most distinctive feature is their tall neural spines. The group's fossil record is largely confined to Asia, with a few members known from Europe, and a biogeographic analysis by Rauhut and colleagues (2024) points to a Southeast Asian origin. Metriacanthosauridae is the senior synonym of Sinraptoridae.

Under dispute

The position of Metriacanthosauridae within Allosauroidea is contested. Most analyses, including the study that established the family's priority over Sinraptoridae, recover it as the sister group of Allosauria (Allosauridae plus Carcharodontosauria) (Carrano, Benson and Sampson, 2012; Rauhut and colleagues, 2024; Zou and colleagues, 2025). Kellermann and colleagues (2025) instead recover Metriacanthosauridae as the sister group of Carcharodontosauridae, naming the uniting clade Carcharodontosauriformes and excluding Allosaurus from it. The family is placed following the prevailing sister-to-Allosauria arrangement; the Carcharodontosauriformes hypothesis remains in competing use but is not adopted.

Diagnosis

  1. Short or absent anterior ramus of the maxilla
  2. Squamosal flange overhanging the quadrate head
  3. Longitudinal groove on the lateral surface of the dentary
  4. Manus shorter than the forearm
  5. Sheet-like, transversely thin mid-caudal neural spines

Clades within Metriacanthosauridae

Genera placed directly in Metriacanthosauridae

  • Alpkarakush Rauhut et al., 2024 Callovian (165.3–161.5 Ma)Kyrgyzstanincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Shidaisaurus Wu et al., 2009 Bajocian (170.9–168.2 Ma)Chinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Yangchuanosaurus Dong et al., 1978 Bajocian–Oxfordian (170.9–154.8 Ma)China
  • Yuanmouraptor Zou et al., 2025 Aalenian–Bajocian (174.7–168.2 Ma)China

References

  1. Paul, G. S. (1988). Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. Simon & Schuster, New York 1-464.

    Named the subfamily Metriacanthosaurinae, from which the family name takes its authorship by coordination.

    paul1988a
  2. Carrano, M. T.; Benson, R. B. J.; Sampson, S. D. (2012). The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(2): 211-300. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.630927 carrano2012a
  3. Rauhut, O. W. M.; Bakirov, A. A.; Wings, O.; Fernandes, A. E.; Hübner, T. R. (2024). A new theropod dinosaur from the Callovian Balabansai Formation of Kyrgyzstan. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201(4). Oxford University Press (OUP). doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae090

    New Metriacanthosauridae-relevant theropod description with phylogeny recovering family as sister to Allosauria.

    rauhut2024a
  4. Zou, Y.; Chen, L.; Wang, T.; Wang, G. F.; Zhang, W. G.; Zhang, X. Q.; Wang, Z. J.; Wu, X. C.; You, H. L. (2025). A new metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China. PeerJ 13: e19218. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.19218

    Describes new metriacanthosaurid theropod, supporting Metriacanthosauridae's recognized composition and placement.

    zou2025a
  5. Kellermann, M.; Cuesta, E.; Rauhut, O. W. M. (2025). Re-evaluation of the Bahariya Formation carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny. PLOS ONE 20(1): e0311096. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0311096

    Re-evaluation with phylogeny recovering Metriacanthosauridae as sister to Carcharodontosauridae within Carcharodontosauriformes.

    kellermann2025a
  6. Currie, P. J.; Zhao, X. J. (1993). A new carnosaur (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Jurassic of Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30(10): 2037-2081. Canadian Science Publishing. doi:10.1139/e93-179

    Erected Sinraptoridae, a junior synonym of Metriacanthosauridae.

    currie1993c