Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur, hailing from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages of the late Jurassic period of North America and Portugal. It was discovered in 1877 by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, who named it Allosaurus, or "different lizard".
Three valid species are recognized; A. fragilis, A. europaeus, and A. jimmanseni. Saurophaganax, another large theropod from North America measuring over 11 meters in length, may potentially be a separate species of Allosaurus, known as A. maximus, or even a large specimen of A. fragilis. However, this has been a subject of debate. If it is in fact a species of Allosaurus, it would be the largest species in the genus.
Allosaurus is one of the most well-known dinosaurs from the Jurassic period, in both popular culture as well as science, due to the sheer number of specimens that have been discovered since 1877. In North America, it lived alongside the famous spiked herbivore Stegosaurus, the long-necked Apatosaurus, the mid-sized Ceratosaurus, and the massive Brachiosaurus. It also shared its habitat with another large carnivorous theropod, known as Torvosaurus, in both North America and Portugal, where the Torvosaurus is the apex predator in the latter region. The Allosaurus is not normally featured in dinosaur movies.
The Lost World (1925)[]
History
Allosaurus makes its first ever appearance in popular culture in Willis O'Brien's 1925 silent film classic, The Lost World. In the film, an Allosaurus does battle with a Trachodon, knocking it into a bog. It is driven off by a Triceratops. Soon, the Allosaurus attacks the explorers, but is driven off my a torch being thrown into its mouth. Later, it attacks an Agathaumas, but is gored to death in the ensuing fight.
Later in the film, another Allosaurus appears and attacks a Brontosaurus, driving it off of the plateau. The Allosaurus leaves the area, but the sauropod manages to survive the encounter.
Inaccuracies
Like many popular culture depictions before the 1980s, the Allosaurus in this film is depicted as a massive, lumbering lizard. note that this was considered to be accurate at the time.
Design
The Allosaurus sculpt was designed by stop-motion animation pioneer Willis O'Brien, who would later mentor the equally famous stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. The colors are unknown due to the fact that this is a black and white film.
Cultural Significance
Though Tyrannosaurus became the most famous dinosaur ever, likely due to its appearance in this film as well as the original King Kong, its role in this film is much smaller than Allosaurus; in fact, Allosaurus is actually the main carnivorous dinosaur of The Lost World. This is likely the film that made Allosaurus a popular dinosaur, and it still is so almost one hundred years later, just a tier under Tyrannosaurus and (later) Velociraptor.
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One Million Years B.C. (1966)[]
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The Valley of Gwangi (1969)[]
History
Gwangi, the titular Allosaurus, serves as the main antagonist of the film.
Inaccuracies
Like in The Lost World released over 40 years earlier, the Allosaurus is depicted as a tail-dragging lizard. However, the film was only released the very year that the Dinosaur Renaissance began, so this can be excused.
Design
Gwangi was designed by Ray Harryhausen, the former mentor of Willis O'Brien. In O'Brien's original script for the film he made many years earlier, he is referred to as an Allosaurus. However, he was also referred to as a Tyrannosaurus by Harryhausen, meaning both of these identifications for Gwangi are valid. Gwangi is very lizard-like, and is purple in color.
Cultural Significance
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Dinosaurs Expedition Born Free (1976-1977)[]
History
The starving Allosaurus attacked the Brontosaurus mother to finally eat something. The hungry-for-flesh predator fought the large dinosaur until it was distracted by the Born Free. Anesthetic shots were fired at the predator at first with little effect, but after it was caught in a net, it started struggling and eventually passed out. A carrier transported it to the Island of Sarlon, and with plenty of food around it, the Allosaurus became much happier and calmer.
After getting away from the poachers, another starving Allosaurus showed up and attacked the Born Free and the baby Stegosaurus. It was unable to catch them after they hid in a cave and after the Dinosaur Catcher was transported into action, it was shot with a few anesthetics, but still managed to almost push the vehicle into a nearby ravine before it collapsed and was transported to its new home.
Inaccuracies
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Design
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Dinosaucers (1987)[]
History
The main leader of the Dinosaucers is Allo.
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Cultural Significance
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Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993-1994)[]
Planet of Dinosaurs (Il Pianeta Dei Dinosauri) (1993)[]
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Land of the Lost franchise[]
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Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996)[]
History
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Design
The Allosaurus was designed by well-known paleoartist and researcher Gregory S. Paul.
Cultural Significance
This is an obscure film, so not much of an impact was made on the popularity of Allosaurus. However, the fact that it appears in the film proves how well-known the genus was.
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The Land Before Time franchise (two appearances)[]
History
The Allosaurus in the sixth installment of The Land Before Time franchise, The Secret of Saurus Rock. It first appears after Dinah and Dana enter a huge redwood forest on their way to the legendary Saurus Rock, and is shown to be stalking them. He nears the two Triceratops children (who are completely oblivious to the predator), but gets stuck in a tree before he can attack them.
Soon, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike enter the forest, looking for Dinah and Dana. Littlefoot points out the immense size of the trees, while prompts Cera to try and knock one down. She fails, remarking that what she hit did not quite feel like a tree trunk. Suddenly, growling sounds come from the "trunk", which the children soon realize is not a tree trunk after all; in fact, it is the Allosaurus, who breaks free from being stuck in the tree and begins chasing the fleeing young dinosaurs. After a pursuit, Littlefoot yells for everyone to follow him through a thick set of trees. The Allosaurus attempts to squeeze his way through the trees, roaring and snarling, but is unable to due to his large size. The Allosaurus then retreats for the time being.
Later, after the kids rescue Dinah and Dana from atop Saurus Rock (and subsequently knock a tooth off of the monument, which apparently will cause bad luck), the Allosaurus returns. Everyone tries to convince Cera that the Allosaurus is directly behind her, but she does not believe them. As the predator drools onto her head, she wonders if it is raining, and looks up. However, she instead finds that the Allosaurus is directly overhead, and just avoids being snatched up in the predator's jaws.
Another chase ensues, which ends when Littlefoot urges everyone to get inside of a large log on the ground. As the Allosaurus searches for the young dinosaurs, Ducky reassures herself that sharpteeth are not very smart, but before the predator even leaves the area, she sticks her head out of a small hole in the log to look for danger. The Allosaurus notices her, and picks up the log with his strong jaws. After a few seconds, he throws the log a huge distance, sending the log flying. The land lands perfectly along the gap of a huge ravine. When the gang exit the log, Spike gets stuck and the Allosaurus returns, but Petrie and Littlefoot free him. The Allosaurus then falls into the ravine with the log.
Later in The Secret of Saurus Rock, Littlefoot props the Allosaurus’s mouth with a stick in an attempt to use one of its teeth to fix Saurus Rock. He jumps out of the Allosaurus and escapes. After Littlefoot escapes and is attacked by a Tyrannosaurus rex, the Allosaurus distracts his grandfather and the tyrannosaurid kicks him to the ground. As the two theropods prepare to finish off Littlefoot’s grandfather, Doc the Diplodocus comes and knocks the Allosaurus to the ground with his tail. Both Littlefoot’s grandfather and Doc move out of the way as the Allosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus rex charge at them and they crash into a rock spire. Then the two diplodocids pull both sides of the rock spire with their tails, causing it to break and crumble down, crushing both the Allosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus rex to death.
Allosaurus later appears in a flashback in The Land Before Time television show episode The Lone Dinosaur Returns, where Littlefoot tells his friends about how Doc and his grandfather saved him from the Allosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus rex. But in this flashback however, the Tyrannosaurus rex is replaced by a second Allosaurus. When the two Allosaurus charge at Littlefoot’s grandfather and Doc, the two sauropods move out of the way and cause them to crash into a rock spire. Both Littlefoot’s grandfather and Doc the Diplodocus pull both sides of the rock spire with their tails, causing it to break and crumble down, crushing the two Allosaurus to death.
Inaccuracies
The Allosaurus is occasionally depicted in the incorrect vertical posture of classic theropod depictions. The Allosaurus is also depicted with two fingers. However, in a couple of shots, it is shown with the accurate number of fingers (three), but this was ironically an animation error. It is often depicted in the correct horizontal theropod posture, but is also shown in the outdated tripod posture.
Design
The Allosaurus appears brown in coloration.
Cultural Significance
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Trilogy of Life (three appearances)[]
History
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Inaccuracies
Allosaurus has an incorrectly-shaped head, with its crests over its eyes, rather than further down the skull like in real life.The small ridges in front of the crests is missing completely from the Allosaurus model in Walking with Dinosaurs. The snout of the Walking with Dinosaurs Allosaurus turns down, while the snout of the real Allosaurus remained straight. Allosaurus would have also possessed lips covering its teeth. Thankfully, The Ballad of Big Al corrected most of these mistakes.
The Allosaurus in the original Walking with Dinosaurs series make low-pitched versions of the sounds that the Velociraptors make in the original Jurassic Park movie, while the Allosaurus in The Ballad of Big Al have chimpanzee and elephant sounds in their roars. The actual Allosaurus did not roar and made closed-mouth sounds in a similar fashion to either an ostrich or an alligator.
Design
in the show, they had light brown colors with black stripes. in Big Al, they are more grey with some red on the face.
Cultural Significance
This Allosaurus is by far one of his most popular appeareances, and it's also many people introduction to the species causing it to be some of the show's most popular dinosaurs.
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When Dinosaurs Roamed America (2001)[]
History
Allosaurus makes its first appearance during the second half of the Late Jurassic segment of the documentary. As the Apatosaurus herd begins to graze, an Allosaurus is shown to be watching the herd, looking for potential prey. It spots a young individual, and begins to stalk it before charging. However, its efforts are stopped by an older individual whipping its tail around at it, and the Allosaurus retreats. A few minutes later,, it ambushes a Ceratosaurus pursuing a family of Dryosaurus consisting of the mother and her remaining youngster (the other Dryosaurus youngster got devoured earlier by a different Ceratosaurus). Another individual soon joins it.
Later, three Allosaurus approach an Apatosaurus which has tripped, fell and broke its leg and eat it alive.
Inaccuracies
- The Allosaurus design has pronated hands.
- The Allosaurus in the documentary When Dinosaurs Roamed America are very large for their species, being closer in size to Saurophaganax.
- Allosaurus may have used closed-mouth vocalization instead of roars, thanks to the fact that ostriches and alligators make closed-mouth sounds, but this wasn’t known at the time of When Dinosaurs Roamed America’s production.
Design
The design is relatively bland, just with a simple color being brown compared to the other dinosaurs which have more colors than just one
Cultural Significance
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The Lost World (2001)[]
Sound of Thunder (2005)[]
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Jurassic Fight Club (2008)[]
History
Appears in 2 episodes of Jurassic Fight Club. Three Allosaurus appear in the fourth Jurassic Fight Club episode “Bloodiest Battle”, killing a Ceratosaurus. They then attack a mother Stegosaurus with her dead youngster, but the Stegosaurus kills one by hitting the theropod in the back of its head with her thagomizer. When a male Camarasaurus gets his front feet stuck in the mud, the Allosaurus abandon the Stegosaurus and turn to the trapped sauropod. Although the Camarasaurus suffers numerous cuts from the Allosaurus, he manages to throw them onto the ground. He even uses his tail to whip one of the theropods, shifting its weight and freeing his front feet. The third and final Allosaurus charges directly at the Camarasaurus, only to get crushed in the head by the sauropod. In the Jurassic Fight Club episode “Hunter Becomes Hunted”, a single Allosaurus defends its territory from a male and female Ceratosaurus who try to make it their hunting ground. The Allosaurus ambushes the female Ceratosaurus hiding behind a rock and snaps her neck like a twig with its jaws, killing her instantly. Then, it focuses on the male Ceratosaurus, who is unaware that his mate is dead. The Ceratosaurus finds the Allosaurus making a loud bellow, with Eric Thompson saying that the latter’s roar is louder than a jumbo jet taking off. The Ceratosaurus runs into the trees and dodges the larger theropod’s attacks, and both the Allosaurus and the Ceratosaurus make several lunges at each other with none of them connecting. The Ceratosaurus then slashes the Allosaurus on the face with his claws on his four-fingered hand, and then leaps into the air, landing on top of the other theropod and biting deep into its neck in an effort to win the territory. The Allosaurus shakes him off, and bites into his shoulder before the Ceratosaurus gets up. The Allosaurus manages to bite down on the back of the male Ceratosaurus, making it difficult for the latter to escape its jaws, breaking his spine. The Allosaurus then tosses the Ceratosaurus into a tree like playing Catch the Ball. When the Ceratosaurus is dead, the Allosaurus disembowels its rival’s corpse, and then makes a victory roar.
Inaccuracies
Too skinny and sometimes too vertical. Also has pronated hands. It's also oversized in the show, more closely resembling Saurophaganax. Makes loud roars when it should be making closed-mouth booms and coos instead.
Design
A skinny big-headed dinosaur, with black stripes and some red on top of the head
Cultural Significance
Is one of the most popular Allosaurus designs.
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Dinosaur Revolution (2011)[]
History
Dinosaur Revolution features an Allosaurus as the main character for the second episode The Watering Hole, specifically a young male named Broken Jaw. The species depicted is Allosaurus europaeus. They are introduced to the episode when a mother Allosaurus europaeus grows weary of a vocalizing Ornitholestes and decapitates the small theropod, before a second one vocalizes, waking her up again. In the morning, Broken Jaw, an Allosaurus europaeus chick, plays with the skull of an Ornitholestes that his mother killed at 3 o’clock A.M. when it was vocalizing. He throws the skull too far and makes it bounce. As Broken Jaw runs after the Ornitholestes skull, the skull bumps into the foot of a massive sauropod called Dinheirosaurus. Broken Jaw sees the Dinheirosaurus and roars at it. A young male Dinheirosaurus named Woodstock approaches him. Broken Jaw then jumps, but Woodstock slaps him across the face with his whiplike tail, breaking his lower jaw and knocking out some of his teeth. Broken Jaw falls to the ground and Woodstock leaves. After Woodstock returns to his herd, the mother Allosaurus europaeus finds Broken Jaw on the ground severely injured. Broken Jaw shows his mother his badly injured jaw, shocking her. The Allosaurus europaeus mother then abandons him as his injury is too severe. Broken Jaw calls for her, but she doesn’t return. He remains on the ground, using the tactic of ambush to catch prey.
Eleven years pass, and Broken Jaw is now a subadult Allosaurus europaeus. A Rhamphorhynchus approaches him and pecks the meat off his teeth. Woodstock the Dinheirosaurus is shown as an adult with a child of his own. As the Dinheirosaurus feed on the surrounding vegetation, Broken Jaw targets the youngster, who has a deformed front foot. Woodstock spots him, and quickly defends his child from the Allosaurus. After Woodstock destroys a dead tree, Broken Jaw gets revenge on him by grabbing his tail and amputating the whiplike end that broke his lower jaw. Broken Jaw gets back to his spot under the tree, preparing his meal. The whiplike tail briefly hits him, but Broken Jaw nonchalantly blocks it under his foot, and then starts eating it. Broken Jaw might think he is king, but he won’t be king for long because he’s about to find out that there’s a new killer in town, and all the Miragaias lay dying, with said killer snapping their necks with its foot.
Broken Jaw goes down to the watering hole to get his morning drink. When he returns, he sees that an Ornitholestes has landed on his back when it tried to catch the Rhamphorhynchus up the tree. He chases the small theropod through some vegetation, but ultimately loses track of it. As he exits the forest, he spots the young Dinheirosaurus and prepares to hunt the young diplodocid. However, his hunt is interrupted when a Torvosaurus roars loudly as if it’s introducing itself.
Sometime later, Broken Jaw sees a Miragaia family stopping over to the watering hole for a refreshing drink. The Torvosaurus appears again, mercilessly slaughtering a baby Miragaia. Broken Jaw goes down to the watering hole to get another drink. After he’s finished drinking, he sees that the Torvosaurus is lying under the tree. Upon seeing it as a threat, he attempts to intimidate the megalosaurid by simply making elk-like calls and raising his tail, which the narrator Rick Robles refers to as a threat display. But it doesn’t work as the Torvosaurus doesn’t seem intimidated by it. Broken Jaw then nudges the Torvosaurus, unintentionally activating its fury. The Torvosaurus roars in anger and knocks down the Allosaurus, biting him on the pelvis. Luckily for Broken Jaw, the Ornitholestes and the Rhamphorhynchus distract the Torvosaurus, allowing him to escape. He lays down in a riverbed to groom the pelvic wound he received from the Torvosaurus.
When the Torvosaurus plans an attack on the young Dinheirosaurus, Broken Jaw, having now recovered, runs right up to the megalosaurid and bites it on the neck in an effort to regain his territory, but gets shaken off and pinned to the ground. Before the Torvosaurus disembowels Broken Jaw, Woodstock charges at the megalosaurid and rears onto his hind legs and crushes down upon the Torvosaurus, smashing and killing it instantly. After this, both he and Broken Jaw make a truce, and Broken Jaw feasts on his dead competitor.
After two Draconyx drink some water during the drought over Portugal, Woodstock rests near the watering hole, blocking Broken Jaw’s path. But the Allosaurus nudges his tail out of the way to take another drink. After a herd of Lusotitan drink up the remaining water, all of the animals except Broken Jaw follow the brachiosaurids. Broken Jaw then returns to his spot under the tree and waits again. As he is sleeping, rain falls onto his nose. Broken Jaw is last seen sleeping as rain falls on the Portuguese land.
Inaccuracies
the skull doesn't match the real animal exactly. The Dinosaur Revolution Allosaurus roars, but recent studies on non-avian dinosaur vocalization suggests that Allosaurus would have used closed-mouth vocalization instead.
Design
the main protagonist (Broken Jaw) have a mostly yellow appeareance in the body with some dark stripes and white on the belly
Cultural Significance
Popularized A. Europaeus
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Planet Dinosaur (2011)[]
History
Allosaurus appears in the Planet Dinosaur episode Fight For Life where it’s spotted by a squawking Camptosaurus who acts as a lookout for its herd and the Stegosaurus. It then charges after the Camptosaurus, but couldn’t keep up with them. The Allosaurus then proceeds to attack the slower Stegosaurus, biting a juvenile on its plate and then on its neck. An adult Stegosaurus attacks the Allosaurus, punching a hole in the theropod’s spine with its thagomizer. A different Allosaurus is later shown hunting a single Camptosaurus. After the second Camptosaurus arrives, the Allosaurus comes out of hiding and attacks. It chases after the second Camptosaurus and uses its head like an axe, ramming its top jaw into the back of the Camptosaurus, causing it to trip. The Allosaurus then rams its top jaw into the neck of the Camptosaurus, and its blood sprays onto the ground. Just as it’s about to eat, a Saurophaganax appears. The Saurophaganax bites the Allosaurus on the head and then eats the Camptosaurus carcass as the Allosaurus backs down.
Inaccuracies
Allosaurus is depicted using its head like a hatchet or an axe during a Camptosaurus hunt. A new paper on the cranio-dental morphology of Allosaurus has deemed this attack unlikely, re-interpreting the unusually wide gape as an adaptation to allow Allosaurus to drive its jaw muscles into its prey, with the weaker jaw muscles being a trade-off to allow the widened gape. It's face is not very accurate and it's neck is too slim
Design it's most a light read with some black stripes
Cultural Significance
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Jurassic World Franchise (2018-2022)[]
History
It is revealed that there are surviving Allosaurus populations remaining on Isla Nublar after the 2015 Incident, but will now face an impending danger, alongside many other creatures, in the form of an erupting volcano. Ben Pincus states that he once escaped from a pursuing Allosaurus by jumping down a waterfall.
In 2018, The Allosaurus is introduced during the stampede, where one runs up to a Gyrosphere with Claire Dearing and Franklin Webb in it and gets tripped and killed by a falling magma rock from Mount Sibo.
At least five other Allosaurus are later captured by Ken Wheatley and his men and are taken off of the doomed island to Lockwood Manor, where they are auctioned off to the highest bidder by Eli Mills and Gunnar Eversol. During the auction, a juvenile is bought by a wealthy client. The remaining Allosaurus are later seen running free in a stampede with other dinosaurs to escape the estate, while the juvenile that was bought at the auction is last seen in a truck being shipped off to its buyer. By 2018 it was known that Allosaurus was subject to cruelty at sometime in the past, according to the DPG.
In 2019, after the dinosaurs’ escape from Lockwood Manor, one of the juvenile Allosaurus has fully matured and taken up residence in Big Rock National Park. It attacked a family of Nasutoceratops that were foraging at a camping ground. It attacks a baby from this family, which barely managed to escape from it jaws. It then engages and Adult from the family, gaining the upper hand by severely injuring the herbivore on the back. However, another Adult Nasutoceratops arrives, and the family manages to ward of the Allosaur long enough to retreat. The Allosaur then hears a cry from an RV nearby, realizing that there are people in it. It turns its attention on the family of campers in the RV. The Allosaurus scrapped the RV, rolling it over and destroying half of it, but was scared off when Kadasha fired a pair of crossbow bolts into its face.
Shortly after the Battle of Big Rock, the event was reported by Rebecca Ryan, who added that the Allosaurus from the battle was being tracked down by authorities. It later returned to the same area where it totaled the news van, trapped Rebecca in the hollow under a tree, and stepped on her phone.
Allosaurus and Carnotaurus were shown attacking the city by terrorizing the Malta citizens in 2022.
Inaccuracies
TBA.
Design
Adults have exaggerated crests and spines running down their backs. The Allosaurus clones as adults are mostly dark greyish blue with a yellow underbelly, and a blue tongue while the juveniles are mostly dark blueish-grey with yellow underbellies, yellow stripes on the face and neck, a yellow circle around its eye orbit, white markings, and faded red on their crests.
Cultural Significance
Interestingly, unlike the rest of InGen's cloned theropods, the wrists of the adult Allosaurus are not pronated, though juveniles do have pronated wrists. It has a thicker head than in real life, and it was slightly oversized, being 10.4 m (34 ft) instead of 9.7 m (32 ft).
Life On Our Planet (2023)[]
Role
Inaccuracies
History and Design
Cultural Significance
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Dinosaur Empire The Series (2024)[]
History and Design Inaccuracies
Role
Cultural Significance
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Sauria (David Armsby) (2023-2024)[]
History and Design
Role
Inaccuracies
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (2024)[]
History and Design
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Cultural Significance
Species
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Trivia[]
- Allosaurus is briefly mentioned in the 2009 Discovery documentary series Monsters Resurrected as being more famous than Spinosaurus. Stock footage from When Dinosaurs Roamed America is shown simultaneously.
- In early CGI production of the dinosaur stampede during the pyroclastic flow in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the Allosaurus present was going to have a much different death. Instead of being hit by volcanic rock, it was originally going to show the dinosaur attempting to ambush a juvenile Triceratops before being gored to death by the infant's mother.
- In Battle at Big Rock, the adult Allosaurus is seen to have supinated wrists instead of pronated wrists, but the GEN 2 Allosaurus, based on the short film model, from Jurassic World: Alive, has pronated wrists, as well as the concept art for the film model. It is unknown if the adult Allosaurus can pronate its wrists.
- According to an ILM digital model production chart for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, female Allosaurus grow noticeably larger than males, achieving a size on par with the average Tyrannosaurus rex.