A. maximus was a new combination by David K. Smith for Chure's Saurophaganax maximus, a taxon created by Chure in 1995 for giant allosaurid remains from the Morrison of Oklahoma. These remains had been known as Saurophagus, but that name was already in use, leading Chure to propose a substitute. Smith, in his 1998 analysis of variation, concluded that S. maximus was not different enough from Allosaurus to be a separate genus, but did warrant its own species, A. maximus. This reassignment was rejected in a review of basal tetanurans. A 2024 reassessment of fossil material assigned to Saurophaganax suggested that the holotype neural arch of this taxon could not confidently be assigned to a theropod, but that it exhibited some similarities to sauropods. Other Saurophaganax bones could be referred to diplodocid sauropods. As such, the researchers assigned the remaining theropod bones to a new species of Allosaurus, A. anax.
A. maximus was a new combination by David K. Smith for Chure's Saurophaganax maximus, a tax!on created by Chure in 1995 for giant allosaurid remains from the Morrison of Oklahoma. These remains had been known as Saurophagus, but that name was already in use, leading Chure to propose a substitute. Smith, in his 1998 ana:lysis of variation, concluded that S. maximus was not different enough from Allosaurus to be a separate genus, but did warrant its own species, A. maximus. This reassignment was rejected in a review of basal tetanurans. A 2024 reassessment of fossil material assigned to Saurophaganax suggested that the .holotype neural arch of this taxon could not confidently be assigned to a theropod, but that it, exhibited some similarities to sauropods. Other Saurophaganax bones could be referred to diplodocid sauropods. As such, the researchers assigned the remaining theropod bones to a new species of Allosaurus, A. anax.