Carcharodontosaurus

dinosaur · predator · Africa · Cretaceous

Shark-like teeth. Carcharodontosaurus got its name because its teeth looked like the teeth of a great white shark. Scientists first discovered this dinosaur in 1925 by finding just two of these special teeth in the Sahara Desert.

Partial skeleton clues. In 1914, paleontologist Ernst Stromer found bones of this dinosaur in Egypt, but he didn't tell anyone until 1931. Sadly, these precious bones were destroyed during World War II, but scientists could still study them from old photographs.

Desert explorer. Carcharodontosaurus lived in what is now Northwest Africa about 100 to 94 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period. Scientists have found its fossils in places like Morocco, Egypt, and Niger.

Lost and found again. The Egyptian skeleton that Stromer discovered was so damaged during the war that scientists recently realized in 2025 that it might actually be a different dinosaur, called Tameryraptor. A big skull found in Morocco in 1995 became the official main fossil we use to study this dinosaur.