Carcharodontosaurus

Carcharodontosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in Northwest Africa from about 100 to 94 million years ago during the Cenomanian age of the late Cretaceous period. The genus was first described in 1925 by French paleontologists Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin as Megalosaurus saharicus, based on two fossil teeth discovered in Algeria, which are now lost. A partial skeleton was discovered in Egypt as early as 1914 by crews of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, although he did not report the find until 1931. Based on this specimen as well as the teeth previously described by Depéret and Savornin, Stromer established the genus Carcharodontosaurus, with C. saharicus as the only species. Although the Egyptian skeleton was destroyed during World War II, it was redescribed as a closely related but distinct genus, Tameryraptor, based on historical photographs in 2025. In 1995, a large incomplete skull attributed to C. saharicus was discovered in the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco, which was officially proposed as the neotype in 2007. In the same year, fossils unearthed from the Farak Formation of Niger were described and named as another species, C. iguidensis, though this taxon might belong to a different genus.

A picture published with the record for Carcharodontosaurus.

Matthew Deery · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CarcharodontosauridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
12.5 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 44 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 24 of 44 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 20 of 44 occurrencesLate Cretaceous145–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 2 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 2 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 2 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 4 occurrences110–108 Mya — about 2 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 2 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 3 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 7 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 4 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences121.4 Mya83.6 Mya145 Mya71 Mya

44 occurrences of Carcharodontosaurus on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

44 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

14 formations

Continental Intercalaire — 28.50°N, 9.57°EContinental Intercalaire — 27.03°N, 1.08°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.15°N, 8.18°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°EContinental Intercalaire — 29.25°N, 0.25°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.70°N, 0.01°WContinental Intercalaire — 33.13°N, 0.40°EIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.97°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 31.51°N, 4.08°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WAïn el Guettar — 32.95°N, 10.28°EAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EElrhaz — 16.63°N, 9.51°EElrhaz — 16.13°N, 10.22°EElrhaz — 16.45°N, 9.23°EEchkar — 17.71°N, 5.80°EEchkar — 17.93°N, 5.62°EEchkar — 16.28°N, 10.53°EDouiret — 32.69°N, 10.26°EDouiret — 32.17°N, 10.40°EDouiret — 32.87°N, 10.38°EBaharîje — 28.34°N, 28.98°EBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.91°EAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WAlcântara — 2.89°S, 44.67°WTagrezou Sandstone — 17.97°N, 9.54°EGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°EQuseir — 25.62°N, 29.29°EContinental Intercalaire — 33.19°N, 10.29°EDouira — 30.51°N, 4.84°WUndifferentiated Unit — 4.11°S, 44.16°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Carcharodontosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Carcharodontosaurus and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Carcharodontosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

156 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Carcharodontosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

24 references

Each of the 44 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 12 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Carcharodontosaurus

Credit
Matthew Deery
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCarcharodontosauridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Stromer 1931)