Duriavenator is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now England during the Middle Jurassic, about 168 million years ago. In 1882, upper and lower jaw bones of a dinosaur were collected near Sherborne in Dorset, and Richard Owen considered the fossils to belong to the species Megalosaurus bucklandii, the first named non-bird dinosaur. By 1964, the specimen was recognised as belonging to a different species, and in 1974 it was described as a new species of Megalosaurus, M. hesperis; the specific name means 'the West' or 'western'. Later researchers questioned whether the species belonged to Megalosaurus, in which many fragmentary theropods from around the world had historically been placed. After examining the taxonomic issues surrounding Megalosaurus, Roger B. J. Benson moved M. hesperis to its own genus in 2008, Duriavenator; this name means "Dorset hunter".
Lectotype lower jaw of M. bucklandii and various specimens historically assigned to that species, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Sixth right maxillary tooth of Duriavenator (A 1–3) compared to teeth of other European megalosaurines
Life restoration with body based on related species
Reconstructed skeleton of Torvosaurus, a more completely known megalosaurid, Museum of Ancient Life
Megalosaurus is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic Epoch of southern England. Although fossils from other areas have been assigned to the genus, the only certain remains of Megalosaurus come from Oxfordshire and date to the late Middle Jurassic.
Megalosaurus
The cover of Robert Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire, 1677 (right). Plot's illustration of the lower extremity of the femur dubbed "Scrotum humanum" (left)
Lithography from William Buckland's "Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield", 1824. Caption reads "anterior extremity of the right lower jaw of the Megalosaurus from Stonesfield near Oxford".
Referred tail vertebra, BMNH 9672. The top of its neural spine has broken off, which would have been about twice as long