Carcharodontosaurus was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs of all time. This terrifying theropod was named after the great white shark, Carcharodon, and rivalled the mighty T. rex in both size and ferocity. It prowled the river deltas of northern Africa during the Late Cretaceous, 93 million years ago.
History
This ground-shaking carnivore was first named in 1927 on the basis of two isolated teeth found in Algeria. It was given the name ‘Megalosaurus saharicus’ after the Sahara Desert where it was discovered. In 1931, better fossil material was described from Egypt, including part of the skull, leg bones, and several back bones. It was given a new tongue-twisting name in reference to the shape of the teeth, which are blade-like and resemble those of the great white shark, Carcharodon. Hence, Carcharodontosaurus saharicus means ‘great white shark reptile from the Sahara’.
Sadly, the rare Carcharodontosaurus fossils were entirely destroyed during the Second World War, when a bomb hit the museum in Munich, Germany, where the Egyptian fossils were kept. Decades later, in 1995, an impressive new skull was discovered in Morocco. With the Algerian teeth now lost and the Egyptian skeleton a victim of war, this Moroccan skull became the new basis for this spectacular dinosaur.