WASHINGTON — A dinosaur fossil at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is celebrating a big achievement for one of its fossils. Its fossilized skeleton of the Jurassic dinosaur Allosaurus has officially been named the type specimen for the entire species. Basically, it's the best example of this type of skeleton anywhere in the world.
The Allosaurus, which is displayed in the museum's David H. Koch Hall of Fossils — Deep Time, is now the scientific standard for the prehistoric predator. That means it's the single physical example researchers will refer to when describing new fossils of Allosaurus fragilis.
It's a coveted scientific honor, recently bestowed by members of International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). According to paleontologist Matthew Carrano, the museum’s curator of dinosauria, the change was more than a decade in the making.
“In 2010, a petition was made to the ICZN to solve the problem that the very famous and scientifically important dinosaur A. fragilis was based on materials that couldn’t really be identified as anything more than a non-descript predatory dinosaur,” Carrano said. “This decision really emphasizes how important our specimen is — both historically and in the present — for dinosaur science.”
The 20-foot predator terrorized other dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic Period, some 150 million years ago, the museum says. It lived in western North America alongside other well-known species like the Stegosaurus.
The museum is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the David H Koch Hall of Fossils — Deep Time. Along with the Allosaurus, the hall features some 700 mounted fossil specimens.
To see the dinosaur for yourself, and learn more about it, visit the National Museum of Natural History. It's open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free.
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