Megalosaurus

Megalosaurus (meaning "Great Lizard", from Ancient Greek μέγας, megas, meaning 'big', 'tall' or 'great' and σαῦρος, sauros, meaning 'lizard') is a genus of large meat-eating theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic Period (Bathonian stage, 166 million years ago) 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.

Description
Early reconstructions depicted Megalosaurus more as a quadrupedal reptilian bear rather that the bipedal theropods that everyone is familiar with today.‭ ‬As far as the people reconstructing it were concerned‭ '‬Megalosaurus was a big lizard,‭ ‬so we'll build a big lizard‭'‬.‭ ‬The out-dated reconstruction of Megalosaurus can be seen at Crystal Palace,‭ ‬London,‭ ‬and although grossly inaccurate it has become a landmark in itself.‭ ‬A famous drawing by Édouard Riou from the era also shows two giant quadrupedal lizards identified as Megalosaurus and Iguanodon‭ (‬the second dinosaur ever discovered‭) ‬tearing chunks of flesh out of each other in some primordial battle.‭ ‬Needless to say this is also inaccurate as not only were they not reconstructed correctly,‭ ‬Iguanodon was a herbivore and would not think to bite a chunk out of a ''Megalosaurus. To add to this, Megalosaurus lived during the  Middle Jurassic Period while   ‬Iguanodon''  lived in the Early Cretaceous  Period.

Eventually further theropod discoveries from different parts of the world towards the end of the nineteenth century resulted in what were more accurate reconstructions,‭ ‬although by modern standards they were still inaccurate.‭‬ Megalosaurus was now depicted as a large bipedal theropod,‭ ‬one of and possibly the largest one active in Europe during the Jurassic.

Because Megalosaurus remains are so often associated with marine deposits the suggestion can be made that Megalosaurus frequent coastal regions at least some of the time,‭ ‬and from this a number of lifestyles can be inferred.‭ ‬One is that Megalosaurus was just like any other carnivorous theropod,‭ ‬hunting inland and only being on the cost coincidentally.‭ ‬The second is that Megalosaurus may have been taking advantage of special types of prey such as small plesiosaurs that were resting on the land.‭ ‬The third is that Megalosaurus was a beach comber,‭ ‬scavenging washed up bodies or visiting tidal pools for trapped fish.‭ ‬The fourth and probably most likely is all of the above.‭

Megalosaurus was a large theropod and would have needed to make use of every available source,‭ ‬especially when you consider that the higher ocean levels of the Jurassic turned Europe into a chain of Islands that significantly reduced the available land mass for supporting terrestrial animals.‭ ‬Also Megalosaurus probably did not stick to one kind of prey of food source throughout its entire life,‭ ‬and probably changed its behaviour and strategy during different stages of its life.