Big Al: Breaking a Leg in the Jurassic

Today I'm talking about my favourite dinosaur. Big Al (or MOR 693) was a sub-adult Allosaurus fragilis from the Morrison Formation of the Upper Jurassic in Wyoming. Discovered in 1991, Big Al currently resides at the Museum of the Rockies. He (or she?) lived a very rough life and sustained a number of pathologies, which tells us a lot about the biology of Allosaurus and the ecology of North America in the Upper Jurassic.
EDIT: Big Al was split from Allosaurus fragilis in 2020 into a new species, Allosaurus jimmadseni (Chure and Loewen 2020).
Bluesky: bsky.app/profi...
Sources
Foth, C., Evers, S. W., Pabst, B., Mateus, O., Flisch, A., Patthey, M., & Rauhut, O. W. (2015). New insights into the lifestyle of Allosaurus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) based on another specimen with multiple pathologies. PeerJ, 3, e940.
Laws, R. R. (1996). Paleopathological analysis of a sub-adult Allosaurus fragilis (MOR 693) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation with multiple injuries and infections (Doctoral dissertation, Montana State University-Bozeman, College of Letters & Science).
Wilkin, J. (2019). Review of Pathologies on MOR 693: An Allosaurus from the Late Jurassic of Wyoming and Implications for Understanding Allosaur Immune Systems.
Images
By Photo by Michael Overton. - Digital photograph, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikime...
By Fred Wierum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
By Fred Wierum - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikime...
By Christian Foth​1,2, Serjoscha Evers2,3, Ben Pabst4, Octávio Mateus5,6, Alexander Flisch7, Mike Patthey8, Oliver W. M. Rauhut1,2 - peerj.com/prep..., CC BY 4.0, commons.wikime...
By Tim Evanson from Washington, D.C., United States of America - Allosaurus fragilis - Big Al - Big Horn County Wyoming - Museum of the Rockies - 2013-07-08Uploaded by FunkMonk, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikime...

[@tomatosoup44]

As far as I know Big Al has been more recently assigned to A. jimmadseni.

[@zoognosiswithjoy]

Oh hey, would you look at that! Pinning this comment. Learning new stuff every day.

[@rappsface]

Didn't think I'd leave this video feeling horribly sorry for Big Al, lol. Poor thing sounds like it had a hard life with a lot of pain. I love the idea of a vet covering dinosaur injuries and what you'd do to treat them if they were still around, it's fascinating!

[@Calvin.of.Martin.Street]

The injuries Big Al and other large theropods (and many herbivores) survived, at least for a significant time, is astounding. Thanks for the video!

[@ACBKnowledge]

going to be honest, thought this video said ai rather than al and saw jurassic so my immediate thought was chatgpt trying to be a paleontologist filling in the gaps in knowledge we have. that being said, it was a pleasant surprise to hear about this new topic from all the different aspect you did talk about! subbed and exited for more keep up the great work!

[@solsoman102]

what does dvm stand for in your bio? dinosaur video maker?

[@scoutworks]

Doctor of Veteranary Medicine