 Acrocanthosaurus is named for its tall neural spines , from the Greek <unk> / <unk> ( ' high ' ) , <unk> / <unk> ( ' thorn ' or ' spine ' ) and <unk> / sauros ( ' lizard ' ) . There is one named species ( A. atokensis ) , which is named after <unk> 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 " <unk> <unk> " for the genus and species in his unpublished 1947 master 's thesis , but the name was changed to Acrocanthosaurus atokensis for formal publication . 
