# Megalosaurus bucklandii

> A large meat-eating dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Oxfordshire, England, and the first dinosaur to be scientifically named, by William Buckland in 1824. Its type specimen is a lower jaw kept in Oxford.

- Classification: Dinosauria (clade) > Saurischia (clade) > Theropoda (clade) > Tetanurae (clade) > Megalosauroidea (superfamily) > Megalosauridae (family) > Megalosaurus (genus) > Megalosaurus bucklandii (species)
- Length: 6 m
- Hip height: 1.8–2.1 m
- Mass: 700–943 kg
- Age: 168.2–165.3 million years ago (Middle Jurassic)
- Fossils found in: Taynton Limestone Formation (Oxfordshire); United Kingdom
- Diet: carnivore
- Described: William Buckland, 1824

Canonical page: https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/megalosaurus-bucklandii
Last updated: 2026-09-27

## Overview

Megalosaurus bucklandii lived in what is now southern England in the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian), on a coastline with lagoons and seasonal dry spells. Bones from the quarries around Stonesfield, north-west of Oxford, reached the University of Oxford from the 1790s; William Buckland described them in 1824 as the "great fossil lizard", and Gideon Mantell added the species name bucklandii in 1827.

It was a two-legged predator several metres long with blade-like, serrated teeth. Its jaw (OUMNH PAL-J.13505) is the type specimen. In 1842 Richard Owen used Megalosaurus, Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus to define a new group, the Dinosauria.

For a long time almost any large Jurassic or Cretaceous theropod was called Megalosaurus. Benson and colleagues (2008) showed that the type jaw has unique features, so the species is valid, but warned that other bones could not be referred to it with certainty; a larger study (Benson 2010) later described more of the Stonesfield material as Megalosaurus.

## Name meaning

"Great lizard", from Greek megas ("great") and sauros ("lizard") (Buckland 1824); bucklandii honours William Buckland (Mantell 1827).

## Sources

1. (2026). Paleobiology Database: Megalosaurus occurrences. The Paleobiology Database (paleobiodb.org), data service 1.2, accessed 2026-09-23. https://paleobiodb.org/data1.2/occs/list.txt?base_name=Megalosaurus&show=coords,paleoloc,strat,loc,ref&pgm=gplates
2. (2026). Wikipedia: Megalosaurus. Wikipedia (English), accessed 2026-09-23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalosaurus
3. Benson, R. B. J. (2010). A description of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Bathonian of the UK and the relationships of Middle Jurassic theropods. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158: 882-935. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00569.x
4. Benson, R. B. J., Barrett, P. M., Powell, H. P. & Norman, D. B. (2008). The taxonomic status of Megalosaurus bucklandii (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Oxfordshire, UK. Palaeontology 51: 419-424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00751.x
5. Buckland, W. (1824). Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, series 2, 1: 390-396. https://doi.org/10.1144/transgslb.1.2.390
6. Oxford University Museum of Natural History (2026). Megalosaurus dentary (OUMNH PAL-J.13505), 3D model and record. Sketchfab (museum account @morethanadodo). https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/megalosaurus-dentary-oumnh-pal-j13505-95c26e991aeb4ebfacd6ceec76e08cba
7. Paul, G. S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press.
8. Paul, G. S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (2nd edition). Princeton University Press.

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Cite as: "Megalosaurus bucklandii". DinoDex. https://dinodex.club/dinosaurs/megalosaurus-bucklandii (updated 2026-09-27).