Streptospondylus (meaning "reversed vertebra") is a genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaur known from the Late Jurassic period of France, 161 million years ago.

[3] Louis-Benoît Guersent (1777–1848), professor of natural history in this school, drew the attention of Georges Cuvier to these remarkable fossil bones.

With the agreement of the prefect of Seine-Inférieure, count Jacques Claude Beugnot, Guersent sent the collection to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

[6] In 1822, Cuvier by the work of Henry De La Bèche became aware that these finds were very disparate, stemming from different periods.

At the same time he created a second species: Streptospondylus cuvieri based on a single damaged vertebra from the Bajocian, found near Chipping Norton.

He also pointed out that the skull von Meyer had based Streptospondylus altdorfensis on was in fact a composite of bones from two species, since named Steneosaurus edwardsi Deslongchamps 1866 and Metriorynchus superciliosum Blainville 1853 (Steel 1973).

[1] The lectotype specimens, MNHN 8605-09, 8787-89, 8793-94, 8907, were probably found at the coast in layers of the Falaises des Vaches Noires near Calvados, dating from the late Callovian or early Oxfordian, about 161 million years old.

[11] Owen also named two other species, S. major[9] (S. recentior is a museum label for syntype specimens [12]) and S. meyeri,[13] of which the former is based on iguanodont material.

Roger Benson in 2008 and 2010 concluded that whether it is a megalosauroid, allosauroid, or a more primitive form cannot be determined because of its extremely fragmentary remains.

[17] Piatnitzkysauridae Streptospondylus Spinosauridae Eustreptospondylus Duriavenator Megalosaurus Torvosaurus Afrovenator Dubreuillosaurus Magnosaurus Leshansaurus Piveteausaurus