 Acrocanthosaurus is named for its tall neural spines , from the Greek ɑκρɑ / akra ( ' high ' ) , ɑκɑνθɑ / akantha ( ' thorn ' or ' spine ' ) and σɑʊρος / sauros ( ' lizard ' ) . There is one named species ( A. atokensis ) , which is named after Atoka County in Oklahoma , where the original specimens were found . The name was coined in 1950 by American paleontologists J. Willis Stovall and Wann Langston Jr . Langston had proposed the name " Acracanthus atokaensis " for the genus and species in his unpublished 1947 master 's thesis , but the name was changed to Acrocanthosaurus atokensis for formal publication . 
