Sauroniops

Eye of Sauron

• Sauron · Tolkien (fictional name) · the Dark Lord, the 'Eye of Sauron' in The Lord of the Rings
• ops · Greek · eye, face

The name combines Sauron, the all-seeing "Eye" villain of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, with the Greek word for "eye" or "face". It was chosen with reference to the single fossil, a frontal bone from the skull roof above the eye. The bone has a thick, dome-like shape, and its brow region gives a sense of a menacing gaze.

Named by

Cau, Dalla Vecchia and Fabbri

Year named

2012

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Cenomanian

Found in

Kem Kem Beds, southeastern Morocco

A large theropod, generally regarded as a carcharodontosaurid. It is known from a single frontal bone, and the type species is Sauroniops pachytholus. Because the material is so scanty, its relationship to other Kem Kem theropods such as Carcharodontosaurus has been debated.