Carcharodontosaurus could grow to be 45 feet long from nose to the tip of his thick tail. It could weigh up to 8 tons. His head was as tall as an average human male, about 6 feet. Perhaps more brawn than brain, the massive head sported a small brain, smaller than T-Rex, and powerful jaws of giant teeth. The Carcharodontosaurus teeth were ferocious: sharp, serrated edges and up to 8 inches long!

T-Rex

The T-rex has long been a favorite among dinosaur lovers. Folks just seem to love imagining the fierce fighter lumbering along, occasionally tossing its head to let out a huge roar. The tiny arms are comical, appearing like shriveled appendages on the huge body.

Body Type

By comparison, the Charcharodontosaurus-saharicus was considerably larger, even though it had a body type that mimicked T-Rex. It had a massive tail, a tall, bulky body and heavy bones. Like the T-rex, it had small front arms with three-fingered hands whose sharp claws surely tore flesh. It was, after all, a carnivore.

All in the Family

But Carcharodontosaurus was not a close a relative of the T-Rex which belongs to the family Tyrannosauroidea. It was an older and more primitive form of theropod. It was more closely related to Giganotosaurus. Both Carcharodontosaurus and Giganotosaurus belong to the order Saurischia or lizard-hipped dinosaurs. They were theropods, carnivores who walked on two legs. But it is the membership in the family allosauridae that puts these two giants, along with the allosaurus, in a closely related group.

Where And When

The only location that Carcharodontosaurus has been found to date is in modern Northern Africa, in the Sahara desert of Morocco. This area wouldn’t have been a desert back when the huge dinosaurs roamed there, 90 to 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It was more likely a tropical swamp with many species of animals for the Carcharodontosaurus to feast upon. It may have hunted in groups like other allosaurs, but there is no fossil evidence of this.

Carcharodontosaurus shared this environment with another huge carnosaur, Spinosaurus.