Allosauroid

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Having the form or characteristics of a large carnivorous dinosaur of the allosaurus type, or belonging to the same broad group
2. Describing a creature or fossil that looks like, or is closely related to, the predatory dinosaur known as allosaurus
3. Relating to or resembling the allosaurid family of meat-eating dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods

Etymology: Allosauroid is a scientific coinage, not an ancient or folk word. It comes from the clade name Allosauroidea, a grouping of large carnivorous dinosaurs named after the genus "Allosaurus," which itself combines Greek roots meaning roughly "different lizard." The adjective and noun forms follow the usual pattern of taxonomic naming, where "-oid" marks a group resembling or related to a type. The clade name Allosauroidea was first proposed by the palaeontologists Philip Currie and Xijin Zhao in 1993. Their proposal gave researchers a single label for a set of theropods that share features with Allosaurus, so the word "allosauroid" can be applied to any member of that group, or to a creature that looks like one.