Robin's Great Coloring Pages: Allosaurus coloring page

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Allosaurus coloring page

Allosaurus fragilis close up

Allosaurus is a very well known Theropod dinosaur of the late Jurassic. (156-145 million years ago) They possibly could grow to up to around 40 feet long and possibly longer. That is around 12 meters. Most of them seem to have been around 28-32 feet long or 8-10 meters long. They never got into a fight with T. rex. T. rex came in the late Cretaceous, many million years later. They may have had confrontations with Torvosaurus and other large Theropods. In fact there are three identified species of Allosaur. At one time there were 6 identified species. Allosaurus fragilis is the most commonly found. It is likely that the different species competed with each other for territory and prey.

Allosaurus probably weighed between 2200 and 8800 lbs. That is 100=4000 kg. It ate other animals, probably other dinosaurs mostly. It had about 32 teeth. The teeth became more curved as they went to the back of the mouth. Allosaurus had somewhat forward facing eyes, but not near as forward facing as later Theropods like T. rex or Velociraptor or Utahraptor.

Allosaurus seems to have been the most successful and therefore the most common larger top predator of the late Jurassic Period. At one site, in Eastern Utah of the United States, paleontologists found dozens of fossilized skeletons of Allosaurs in what must have been a natural predator trap. It is possible that there was a muddy bog and Allosaurus thought with its stomach. Meaning it saw free food in the form of a dinosaur stuck in the mud... and it did not have enough sense to realize that if he or she went into the mud they would get trapped too. That site is called the Cleveland Lloyd Quarry.

I want to note some things artistically about this top drawing. It was done in ink. Then the scales and some additional shadows were done in pencil. I could have pushed harder and made all the pencil marks darker. Maybe I'll do that one day and repost it. But the faded area where the scales are less obvious could be colored a different color by you the user. I did not add any stripes or spots or other markings besides the scales so you could color those kind of markings in. This Allosaurus head is based on a photo of an Allosaurus skull. It is actually fairly accurate. But I will admit, I did not count the teeth. There are about the correct number of teeth in the lower jaw and too many in the upper jaw.

IF an Allosaurus fought with a T. rex the T. rex would have the distinct advantage of a larger head and stronger bite force and probably a size advantage too. But remember, Allosaurus fragilis lived 83 million years BEFORE Tyrannosaurus rex. But don't discount Allosaurus. It clearly was a very successful predator of its day. Even the biggest Allosaurus was probably smaller than the biggest T. rex would get to. But at 40 feet long and maybe 8800 lbs, with 32 sharp curved teeth and a large head, it was not exactly a small predator. Also note that Allosaurus had larger arms than a T. rex. It had long curved claws on those arms for grappling with and cutting open prey. The interior first claw on its hands were particularly long and sharp. And its feet had claws too. Also, Allosaurus fragilis had a smaller head to body ratio that Tyrannosaurus rex had.

The Pterosaur flying in the distance, and fleeing the eruption, is a Jurassic Pterosaur called Ramphorhynchus. Pterosaurs of the Jurassic Period had long tails. The Pterosaurs, like Pteranodon, lost the long tails in the Cretaceous Period.

Allosaurus probably cared for and taught chicks. It is possible that they all hunted in packs in order to bring down large prey like the long necked Sauropods. As big as Allosaurus was, it would have little chance of bringing down a huge 100 foot long or 30 meters long Sauropod.

I usually don't draw volcanoes with Jurassic dinosaurs. It was far more common for volcanoes to be erupting in the late Cretaceous Period when T. rex and Triceratops were alive. But I did some research recently and found that there were times in the Jurassic Period when volcanic activity was on the upswing. So I drew an erupting volcano with this Allosaurus.

This drawing, in printable form, is found by clicking on the correct button up top. That button is . . . .
. . . . Paleontology . . . . . . or . . . . . All Printables. . . . Scroll down to the bottom of the list for this new drawing I posted first today. I am posting some other older drawings below. They will be found, in printable form, further up the lists.