Metriacanthosauridae (Greek for "moderately-spined lizards") is an extinct family of allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.

[7] Furthermore, the 2012 study named a new subfamily Metriacanthosaurinae to include all metriacanthosaurids more closely related to Metriacanthosaurus than to Yangchuanosaurus.

A much larger phylogenetic analysis found Xuanhanosaurus, previously considered a basal megalosauroid, to be the basalmost metriacanthosaurid.

However, the positions of Xuanhanosaurus and Poekilopleuron were very unstable, and their exclusion from the analysis gave a more resolved and stable cladogram.

[clarification needed] The group is thought to have originated in Asia and spread westward to Europe.