What is Carcharodontosaurus?
{{italictitle}} {{Taxobox | name = ''Carcharodontosaurus'' | fossil_range = [[Early Cretaceous]] <br/>100{{ndash}}94 mya | image = | image_width = 250px | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[Sauropsid]]a | superordo = [[Dinosauria]] | ordo = [[Saurischia]] | subordo = [[Theropoda]] | infraordo = [[Carnosauria]] | familia = [[Megalosauridae]] | genus = '''''Carcharodontosaurus saharicus''''' | genus_authority = Stromer, 1921 }} '''''Carcharodontosaurus''''' was a giant [[carnivorous]] [[dinosaur]] of the Early [[Cretaceous]] period, 100 - 94 million years ago.<ref>The name means 'sharp toothed [[lizard]]'.</ref> It was about 12 [[metre|meters]] long and had a weight of about 7 [[ton]]s, and more than 4 metres tall. [[Fossil]]s of this Cretaceous dinosaur were found in [[North Africa]] by a [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] named [[Ernst stromer|Ernst Stromer]]. ''Carcharodontosaurus'' was closely related to the slightly larger ''[[Giganotosaurus|Giganotosaurus carolinii]]'', its cousin from [[Argentina]]; they are both megalosaurid carnosaurs. Recent discoveries of ''Carcharodontosaurus saharicus'' put its adult length at 39 - 49 feet, making it the largest carnivorous dinosaur in Africa, after ''[[Spinosaurus|Spinosaurus aegyptiacus]]''. Only two ''Carcharodontosaurus saharicus'' [[fossil]]s have been found. Two teeth were found in the 1920s. Other parts were found in [[Egypt]] in the 1930s. They were destroyed in bombing raids on [[Munich]] in [[World War II]] while they were on display.<ref name=Helen/> A skull was uncovered in 1996: its length estimates were larger than the older ones and so was its skull, which measured 5.2 feet or 1.6 [[metres]].<ref name=Helen>{{cite web | last = Briggs | first = Helen | title = New meat-eating dinosaur unveiled | work = Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis was one of the largest meat-eaters that ever lived | publisher = BBC NEWS | date = 2007-12-12 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7138782.stm | format = | doi = | accessdate=December 15, 2007}} </