Drew Eddy Master's student North Carolina State University Department of Marine, Earth, Atmospheric Sciences Chair:  Dr. Julia Clarke CoChair: Dr. Mary Schweitzer

My current work focuses on describing the specimen of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCSM 14345). This North American, Early Cretaceous theropod has a nearly complete skull with preserved palatal elements and braincase. Although the exterior of the skull has been previously studied, the interior has yet to be systematically described. From this description, new morphological characters will be determined. These characters, when combined with those from previous studies, will be used to compare Acrocanthosaurus atokensis to other members of the Allosauroidea. The resulting phylogenetic tree will help determine if Acrocanthosaurus was a sister taxa to Allosaurus, or a basal member of the Carcharodontosauridae. Lastly, the paleobiogeography and taphonomy of Acrocanthosaurus atokensis will be assessed.