Carcharodontosaurus saharicus was a genus of large Theropod lived in late Cretaceous in Africa. It was among the largest theropods, longer than Tyrannosaurus rex but not quite as big as Giganotosaurus or Spinosaurus.
 Carcharodontosaurus saharicus |
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| Carcharodontosaurus saharicus |
| Name meaning: Shark-like toothed Lizard |
| Area: North Africa |
| Period: Late Cretaceous |
| Diet: meat and corpses |
| Lenght: 39,4-42,7ft (12-13m) |
| Height: 13,2-16,5ft (4-5m) |
| Weight: 6,1- 7 tones among the largest Theropods that every lived, being around as big as Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus , and Spinosaurus. The Carcharodontosaurus saharicus species is just one of the two Carcharodontosaurus species: the another one, C. iguidensis, was smaller and it was discovered recently. |
Size[]
This Theropod was very large: it was about as long as Tyrannosaurus but lighter than it. The estimates from scientific work ranging from 12 and 13 m (39,4-42,7 feet) long and from 5 and 7 tons in weight. His skull was very large, longer to that of Tyrannosaurus one: it was over 1.5 m (5 feet) long. It was likely in the 3.5-5.5 m range in height.
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Discovery[]
The first specimen of this dinosaur was discovered in 1927, originally called Megalosaurus saharicus. Only in 1931 Ernst Stromer discovered that it was actually a new dinosaur, and he has called it Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. The skeleton belong to a big animal, 11 m (36 ft) long, but it was likely an sub adult. His skull was in the 1,2-1,4 m range. the skeleton wasn't complete - but we had about the half of the skeleton. Unfortunately, this skeleton was destroyed in the night between 24 and 25 April on Monaco by English's bombing. This skeleton was
Carcharodontosaurus, drawn by DinoSteve93
destroyed along with the first Spinosaurus and Bahariasaurus remains. Only 52 years later Paul Sereno discovered a new specimen, this time much larger than the specimen lost (by at least 15 %): SMG din-1. It's just a 1,6-meters long skull with some cervical vertebrae.
Carcharodontosaurus skull
Brain []
In 2001, a study by Hans C. E. Larson show that the inner ear of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus was very similar to the Dromaeosaurus and Allosaurus . In fact in these dinosaurs there is a particular configuration of the bone of the neack correlated to the brain. However, the brain of Carcharodontosaurus is particularly small.