Carcharodontosaurus saharicus

Carcharodontosaurus saharicus was one of the giant carcharodontosaurid predators of mid-Cretaceous North Africa. The Moroccan neotype is a partial skull about 1.6 metres long, but secure postcranial material is sparse, so whole-body dimensions rely heavily on comparison with close relatives. The animal's name refers to the resemblance between its thin, serrated teeth and those of the shark genus Carcharodon. A famous partial skeleton from Egypt shaped reconstructions for almost a century, but a 2025 re-evaluation found enough differences to name that animal Tameryraptor markgrafi. It should no longer be used as direct evidence for the body of C. saharicus.

Its fossils occur between approximately 100.5 and 93.9 million years ago. Values shown here are approximate and reflect the current curated seed dataset.

Neotype SGM-Din 1 preserves much of a very large, long and laterally narrow cranium, although the snout tip, rear corners, quadrates and much of the palate are missing. The maxilla has deeply grooved external sculpturing and held long, compressed teeth with curved enamel wrinkles beside the serrations. Large skull openings reduced weight, and the braincase shows extensive pneumatic spaces. The skull alone securely documents the head; the neck, arms, pelvis and legs shown in restorations are mostly reconstructed from related carcharodontosaurids rather than from one associated C. saharicus skeleton.

• Very large, long and laterally narrow skull
• Deeply grooved sculpturing across the outer maxilla
• Long blade-like teeth with serrated cutting edges
• Curved enamel wrinkles beside tooth serrations
• Large antorbital and other skull openings reducing weight
• Pneumatic recesses within the braincase

Two large theropod teeth were collected in 1924 from separate foggara water-channel cuttings near Timimoun, Algeria. Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin named them Megalosaurus saharicus in 1925, and Ernst Stromer created Carcharodontosaurus for the species in 1931. The original teeth are now lost. Paul Sereno and colleagues found a huge partial skull in Morocco's Kem Kem region in 1995 and described it in 1996; Brusatte and Sereno designated it neotype SGM-Din 1 in 2007. Stromer's Egyptian skull and partial skeleton, destroyed in Munich in 1944, were historically referred to C. saharicus but were redescribed as Tameryraptor markgrafi in 2025.

Discovery credit: Workers near Timimoun, Captain Burté, Paul Sereno.

Naming authors: Charles Depéret, Justin Savornin.

The Kem Kem Group records river channels, floodplains and deltaic settings along the northern margin of Africa during the Cenomanian. Fish, crocodyliforms, turtles, pterosaurs and several large predatory dinosaurs occur in the regional assemblage, including Spinosaurus and Deltadromeus. The original Algerian teeth came from broadly coeval continental deposits near Timimoun, but fossils separated by hundreds of kilometres and long intervals of deposition did not necessarily form one local community.

The thin, deeply serrated teeth were effective cutting tools, supporting a role as a large-bodied carnivore. Exactly how Carcharodontosaurus killed prey, what it preferred to hunt and whether it scavenged regularly cannot be read directly from the partial skull. There is no secure evidence for cooperative packs. Comparisons with related allosauroids suggest powerful neck-driven feeding, but bite-force and speed estimates depend on reconstructed muscles and an incompletely known body.

• Its name compares the serrated teeth with those of the shark genus Carcharodon.
• The Moroccan replacement type skull is roughly 1.6 metres long even though several bones are missing.
• The two original Algerian teeth were found about three kilometres apart and probably came from different animals.
• The Egyptian skeleton used in classic reconstructions was renamed Tameryraptor in 2025.

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1. 01
   Sur la découverte d'une faune de Vertébrés albiens à Timimoun (Sahara occidental)

   Charles Depéret, Justin Savornin · Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences 181 · 1925

2. 02
   Predatory Dinosaurs from the Sahara and Late Cretaceous Faunal Differentiation

   Paul C. Sereno, Didier B. Dutheil, M. Iarochene and 6 coauthors · Science 272(5264) · 1996

   Open source
3. 03
   A new species of Carcharodontosaurus (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Niger and a revision of the genus

   Stephen L. Brusatte, Paul C. Sereno · Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(4) · 2007

   Open source
4. 04
   Re-evaluation of the Bahariya Formation carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny

   Maximilian Kellermann, Elena Cuesta, Oliver W. M. Rauhut · PLoS ONE 20(1) · 2025

   Open source
5. 05
   Musée du Département de l'Energie et des Mines

   Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Morocco

   Open source