Carcharodontosaurus saharicus

Carcharodontosaurus was a large meat-eating theropod from the Early Cretaceous of Africa. Its huge skull with powerful jaw equipped with long serrated teeth make it a formidable predator.

Carcharodontosaurus was originally described by French paleontologists Deperet and Savornin in 1925 as a species of Megalosaurus from fragmentary remains found in the desert of Algeria. The name Carcharodontosaurus was coined by Stromer in 1931. The original material was destroyed during WWII but additional fossils were found later. In 2007, Brusatte and Sereno described a new species from Niger, C. iguidensis.

Name

Carcharodontosaurus saharicus

Authority

(Deperet & Savornin, 1925) Stromer, 1931

Meaning of generic name

Carcharodon (Jagged teeth) Shark Lizard

Meaning of specific name

From Sahara

Size

Length: 13.5 m

Remains

Fragmentary skull and associated postcrania.

Age and Distribution

• Baharija Formation (Cenomanian), Marsa Matruh Egypt;
• Tegana Formation Ksar-es-Souk Morocco;
• Chenini Formation "Conitental intercalaire" Medinine, Tunisia;
• "Continental intercalaire" (Gharyan) Lybia;
• "Ci" Adrar Tamenghest Wargla (Albian), Algeria;
• "Ci" Agadez, Niger

Classification

Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Carnosauria Carcharodontosauridae

Further Reading

C. Depéret and J. Savornin. 1925. Sur la découverte d'une faune de Vertébrés albiens à Timimoun (Sahara occidental) [On the discovery of a fauna of Albian vertebrates at Timimoun (western Sahara)]. Comptes Rendus des Hebdomadaires des Seances de l'Academie des Sciences à Paris 181:1108-1111.

S. Brusatte and P. C. Sereno. 2007. A new species of Carcharodontosaurus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Niger and a revision of the genus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(4):902-916

Synonyms

Megalosaurus saharicus Deperet & Savornin, 1925; Dryptosaurus saharicus (Deperet & Savornin, 1925)

Image

By Nobu Tamura, March 6, 2007