Carcharodontosauridae

Carcharodontosauridae is a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931, Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a family, which, in modern paleontology, indicates a clade within Carnosauria. Carcharodontosaurids include some of the largest land predators ever known: Acrocanthosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan all rivaled Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus in size. Estimates give a maximum weight of 8–10 metric tons for the largest carcharodontosaurids, while the smallest carcharodontosaurids were estimated to have weighed at least 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).

Carcharodontosauridae

Matthew Deery · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AllosauroideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At least 77 million years on record.

The record covers at least 149.2 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 4 of 116 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 70 of 116 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 42 of 116 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 116 occurrences154–151 Mya — about 1 occurrence151–148 Mya — about 2 occurrences148–145 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences139–136 Mya — about 2 occurrences136–133 Mya — about 2 occurrences133–130 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences127–124 Mya — about 3 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 5 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 7 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 7 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 9 occurrences112–109 Mya — about 11 occurrences109–106 Mya — about 10 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 7 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 8 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 15 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 15 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 2 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences88–85 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences82–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–67 Mya — about 1 occurrence67–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences149.2 Mya72.2 Mya154 Mya64 Mya

116 occurrences of Carcharodontosauridae on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

116 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

48 formations

Continental Intercalaire — 28.50°N, 9.57°EContinental Intercalaire — 27.03°N, 1.08°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.15°N, 8.18°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.72°N, 0.83°EContinental Intercalaire — 29.25°N, 0.25°EContinental Intercalaire — 32.70°N, 0.01°WContinental Intercalaire — 33.13°N, 0.40°EIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.97°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 31.51°N, 4.08°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WElrhaz — 16.63°N, 9.51°EElrhaz — 16.13°N, 10.22°EElrhaz — 16.45°N, 9.23°EElrhaz — 16.43°N, 9.12°EElrhaz — 16.30°N, 9.13°EHuincul — 39.06°S, 69.29°WHuincul — 39.40°S, 68.62°WHuincul — 39.36°S, 69.03°WHuincul — 39.63°S, 69.18°WAntlers — 33.90°N, 94.83°WAntlers — 34.18°N, 95.81°WAïn el Guettar — 32.95°N, 10.28°EAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EEchkar — 17.71°N, 5.80°EEchkar — 17.93°N, 5.62°EEchkar — 16.28°N, 10.53°ECandeleros — 39.52°S, 68.75°WCandeleros — 39.20°S, 69.60°WCandeleros — 39.21°S, 68.72°WCandeleros — 38.35°S, 69.15°WCerro Barcino — 43.78°S, 68.83°WCerro Barcino — 43.84°S, 68.58°WCerro Barcino — 43.40°S, 68.29°WAlcântara — 2.48°S, 44.46°WAlcântara — 2.89°S, 44.67°WTendaguru — 9.68°S, 39.21°ECloverly — 44.98°N, 108.32°WDouiret — 32.69°N, 10.26°EDouiret — 32.17°N, 10.40°EDouiret — 32.87°N, 10.38°EWadi Milk — 16.70°N, 31.14°EBaharîje — 28.34°N, 28.98°EBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.91°ECedar Mountain — 38.73°N, 109.59°WCedar Mountain — 39.18°N, 110.11°WHaoling — 34.11°N, 112.59°EMirambel — 40.75°N, 0.39°WArundel Clay — 39.07°N, 76.87°WBahariya — 28.33°N, 29.12°ETagrezou Sandstone — 17.97°N, 9.54°ELos Blanquitos — 24.30°S, 65.27°WPortezuelo — 38.45°S, 68.72°WLianmuqin — 46.10°N, 85.67°E

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The named rock units Carcharodontosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Carcharodontosauridae and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Carcharodontosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

544 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 105 sites for Carcharodontosauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

77 references

Each of the 116 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 65 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Carcharodontosauridae

Credit
Matthew Deery
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Carcharodontosauridae indet. · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 16437

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAllosauroidea through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stromer 1931