Saurophagus

lizard eater

• sauros · Greek · lizard
• phagos · Greek · eater

The name combines the Greek words for "lizard" and "eater". It was given to a very large predatory theropod, so the name described it as a predator of other reptiles. The name had already been used for a bird genus, so it could not be used for the dinosaur.

Named by

Stovall

Year named

1941

Period

Late Jurassic

Found in

Morrison Formation, Oklahoma, USA

Saurophagus is a preoccupied name for a large Morrison Formation theropod (type species S. maximus). Chure replaced it in 1995 with Saurophaganax, meaning "supreme lizard-eating master". Some researchers treat Saurophaganax as a species of Allosaurus. The authorship and year given here are from memory and are not fully certain.