Carcharodontosaurus
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Carcharodontosaurus is a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that existed during the Late Cretaceous period, around 95-100 million years ago. At around 15m in length, Carcharodontosaurus is one of the largest theropods, and gets its name – which translates to ‘jagged teeth lizard’ - from its teeth, which can grow up to eight inches.
Discovery
This genus was formally discovered in 1925 by Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin, following the excavation of two teeth at the Continental intercalaire formation in Algeria the previous year. In 1931, German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer matched the teeth to a partial skull and other bones unearthed in 1914 and, though these artefacts were destroyed during World War II, further fossils have since been found that relate to the original 1914 discovery.
Palaeoecology
Carcharodontosaurus lived in the hot and humid climate of North Africa, fighting for territory near rivers and lakes with other large dinosaurs including Spinosaurus. Its enormous size meant that it would hunt across vast distances in search of food, preying upon smaller dinosaurs like Ouranosaurus.
Information
- Era
- Late Cretaceous
- Family
- Carcharodontosauridae
- Genus
- Carcharodontosaurus
- height
- 5.3M
- length
- 15M
- weight
- 15.1T
- Diet
- Carnivore, Live Prey
- Egg batch size
- 1 - 2
