Carcharodontosaurus Characteristics

Carcharodontosaurus was larger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and one of the longest and heaviest known carnivorous dinosaurs growing to an estimated 12 metres (40 feet) and weighing up to 6 - 8 tons. Although larger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, its brain was smaller. However, Carcharodontosaurus was a carnosaur, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was high among the dinosaurs. Carcharodontosaurus was a carnivore, with enormous, powerful jaws and long, sharp, serrated teeth up to 8 inches long. It may have hunted in packs, however, no fossil evidence of this exists. It may have been a scavenger as well as an active predator. Carcharodontosaurus had a huge, long tail and a stout body mass with heavy bones. Carcharodontosaurus had strong hind legs and short arms with hands that were equipped with 3 fingers with sharp claws on the end. Carcharodontosaurus had long, muscular legs and fossilized trackways indicate that it could run about 20 miles per hour, though there is some controversy as to whether it actually did. At 6 - 8 tons, a forward fall would have been deadly to Carcharodontosaurus, due to the inability of its small arms to brace itself when it landed.

Paleontologists once thought that Carcharodontosaurus had the longest skull of any of the theropod dinosaurs. However, the premaxilla and quadrate bones were missing from the original African skull, which led to misinterpretion of its actual size by researchers. A more modest length of 1.6 metres (5.2 feet) has now been proposed. Therefore, the honour of the largest theropod skull now belongs to another huge carcharodontosaurid dinosaur, the Carcharodontosaurus closest relative, Giganotosaurus.

Carcharodontosaurus fossils were first found by Charles Depéret and J. Savornin in the Continental intercalaire of Algeria (dating to the Albian stage) in 1927. Further fossils were collected from the Baharija Formation of Egypt, dating to the slightly later Cenomanian stage. These first fossils of Carcharodontosaurus were destroyed during World War II. However, cranial material from a Carcharodontosaurus was again discovered in the Kem Kem Formation of Morocco in 1995 by paleontologist Paul Sereno.