What is Torvosaurus?
{{italictitle}} {{Taxobox | name = ''Torvosaurus'' | fossil_range = [[Upper Jurassic]] | image = | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Mounted ''Torvosaurus'' skeleton in the [[Museum of Ancient Life]], [[Utah]] | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[Sauropsida]] | superordo = [[Dinosaur]]ia | ordo = [[Saurischia]] | subordo = [[Theropoda]] | familia = [[Megalosauridae]] | genus = '''''Torvosaurus''''' | genus_authority = [[Peter Galton|Galton]] & [[James A. Jensen|Jensen]], 1979 }} '''''Torvosaurus''''' was a large [[dinosaur]] from the end of the [[Jurassic]] period. It lived about 153 to 148 million years ago in what is now [[Colorado]] and [[Portugal]]. ''Torvosaurus'', possibly the largest carnivore of all time,<ref>Hendrickx C. & Mateus O.V. 2014. ''Torvosaurus,'' the largest terrestrial predator from the Jurassic, and a proposed terminology of the maxilla anatomy in nonavian theropods. ''PLoS ONE'' '''9''' (3): e88905. [http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088905]</ref> was a large, heavily-built, [[bipedal]] carnivore. It grew to 9 to 11 meters in length and an estimated weight of about 2 metric tons. Its hands and arms were about average for its size. In proportion to other famous carnivores, ''[[Allosaurus]]'' had more powerful arms, and ''[[Tyrannosaurus]]'' had tiny arms. Studies suggest that the [[natural environment|paleoenvironment]] of this part of the [[Morrison Formation]] had rivers flowing from the west into a basin with a giant, [[salinity|saline]] [[alkaline]] [[lake]]. There were extensive [[wetlands]] nearby. Fossils from the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry of western [[Colorado]] show one of the most diverse Upper Jurassic vertebrate assemblages in the world.<ref>Richmond D.R. & Morris T.H. 1999. Stratigraphy and cataclysmic deposition of the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, Mesa County, Colorado. In Carpenter K; Kirkland J. and Chure D. eds. The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation: An Interdisciplinary Study. ''Modern Geology'' '''22''', no. 1-4, pp. 121–143.</ref> The