Carcharodontosaurus

shark-toothed lizard

• karcharos · Greek · jagged, sharp
• odous (odont-) · Greek · tooth
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name means "shark-toothed lizard". It refers to the animal's teeth, which are tall, flattened, blade-like and serrated, much like the teeth of the great white shark (genus Carcharodon). The shark genus name itself comes from Greek words for "jagged" and "tooth". Stromer coined the name in 1931 for North African material, and Depéret and Savornin had earlier named the species Megalosaurus saharicus in 1927.

Named by

Stromer

Year named

1931

Period

Early to Late Cretaceous

Stages

Albian – Cenomanian

Found in

Kem Kem Beds, Morocco, and the Algerian Sahara, North Africa

A large theropod and the type genus of the family Carcharodontosauridae. The type species is C. saharicus. The original type material was destroyed in World War II, and a neotype skull was designated from Morocco in 1995. Some authors question the earlier-stage dates, and the Kem Kem age is usually given as roughly Cenomanian.