Carnivorous dinosaurs other than the famous t-rex and spinosaurus..

[JurassicDD]

Carcharodontosaurus the shark-toothed lizard diagram by Franoys https://www.deviantart.com/franoys/art/Carcharodontosaurus-saharicus-skeletals-MKlll-639149038

Estimated to be one of the largest theropods at around 12 meters long and estimated to mass around 6400 kg (7 tons) with current estimates.

 "After all these things, it is a matter of a theropod form that is distinctly different from the previously known species, which I name Carcharodontosaurus according to the gross similarity with the teeth of Carcharodon. Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (DÉPERET and SAVORNIN).  Middle Cretaceous of North Africa. - (Stromer et al, 1931)

Carcharodontosaurus is a carnivorous theropod dinosaur, which lived in the African piece of the Gondwanan continent. Its remains were found in the Kem Kem and Bahariya formations (North Africa) where it was the apex and most powerfully built predator and coexisted with gigantic spinosaurid theropods like Spinosaurus and Sigilmassasaurus, that occupied a different niche, Bahariasaurus, the agile noasaurid theropod Deltadromeus agilis, the medium sized sauropods Rebbachisaurus and Aegyptosaurus, the gigantic titanosaurian sauropod Paralititan stromeri, and a big variety of pterosaurs, like azdarchids (Alanka and Xericeps),and indeterminate tapejarids; and also crocodilomorhps of various sizes and niches, like Aeigisuchus ,Lagonasuchus and Stomatosuchus.

At some point, the populations of theropods that would evolve into Carcharodontosaurus became isolated from their south American sister taxa, such as Tyrannotitan or Giganotosaurus. 

The holotype was found in 1931 and described by Stromer, which also gave a name to the Carcharodontosauridae family. It is really important to remark that the remains were really scarce, for example only 3 vertebrae out of the 23 precaudals, 5 sacrals, and at the very least 45 caudals that constituted the animal (4% of the vertebral column, hence body length estimations are very tentative and conjectural, nevertheless the vertebrae found is not big compared to the other elements) The skull remains were also extremely damaged, broken, and weathered. Out of all the bones found, only the hindlimb bones were complete, and the femur broke in a lot of pieces during transport and had to be rebuilt, therefore maybe it's dimensions are not very reliable. Soon after, the remains were bombed in WW2, along with other dinosaurs described also by Stromer, like the Spinosaurus holotype, Bahariasaurus, and Aegyptosaurus. But the description of the animal remained and allows an attempt to restore it.

Later on (in 1996) , Paul Sereno found a 1.28 meters piece of a skull of another individual of the same species (the restored length of the skull is again, conjectural). It is the new type of the species and belongs to an animal approximately 12.5% larger than the destroyed holotype.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

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