# Carcharodontosauridae

Carcharodontosauridae (carcharodontosaurids; from the Greek καρχαροδοντόσαυρος, carcharodontósauros: "shark-toothed lizards") 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: Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan all rivaled Tyrannosaurus in size. Estimates give a maximum weight of 8–10 metric tons (8.8–11.0 short tons) for the largest carcharodontosaurids, while the smallest carcharodontosaurids were estimated to have weighed at least 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).

## Evolution

Along with the spinosaurids, carcharodontosaurids were the largest predators in the early and middle Cretaceous throughout Gondwana, with species also present in North America (Acrocanthosaurus), Europe (Concavenator) and possibly Asia (Shaochilong). Although not classified within the family Carcharodontosauridae, indeterminate remains of carcharodontosaurians are also found in Early Cretaceous deposits of Australia. Carcharodontosaurids range throughout the Cretaceous from the Barremian (127-121 million years ago) to the Turonian (94-90 million years ago). Past the Turonian, they were replaced by the smaller abelisaurids in Gondwana and by tyrannosaurids in North America and Asia. While some teeth and a maxilla discovered in Maastrichtian deposits of Brazil. this identification has been subsequently rejected and the material assigned to abelisaurids after better examination, and there are no reliable records of carcharodontosaurs in South America beyond the end of the Turonian. In December 2011, Oliver W. M. Rauhut described a new genus and species of carcharodontosaurid from the Late Jurassic (late Kimmeridgian to earliest Tithonian faunal stage, about 154-150 million years ago) of Tendaguru Formation, southeastern Tanzania. This genus, Veterupristisaurus represents the oldest known carcharodontosaurid.

## Classification

The family Carcharodontosauridae was originally named by Ernst Stromer in 1931 to include the single newly discovered species Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. A close relative of C. saharicus, Giganotosaurus, was added to the family when it was described in 1995. Additionally, many paleontologists have included Acrocanthosaurus in this family (Sereno et al. 1996, Harris 1998, Holtz 2000, Rauhut 2003, Eddy & Clarke, 2011, Rauhut 2011), though others place it in the related family Allosauridae (Currie & Carpenter, 2000; Coria & Currie, 2002). Carcharodontosaurids are characterized by the following morphological characters : Dorsoventral depth of anterior maxillary interdental plates more than twice anteroposterior width, squared, sub-rectangular anterior portion of the dentary, teeth with wrinkled enamel surfaces, presence of four premaxillary alveoli and a premaxillary body taller than long in lateral aspect, opisthocoelous cervical vertebrae with neural spines more than 1.9 times the height of the centrum, large, textured rugosities on the lacrimal and postorbital formed by roofing and forming broad orbital shelves, and a proximomedially inclined femoral head. With the discovery of Mapusaurus in 2006, Rodolfo Coria and Phil Currie erected a subfamily of Carcharodontosauridae, the Giganotosaurinae, to contain the most advanced South American species, which they found to be more closely related to each other than to the African and European forms. Coria and Currie did not formally refer Tyrannotitan to this subfamily, pending a more detailed description of that genus, but noted that based on characteristics of the femur, it may be a gigantosaurine as well.
In 1998 Paul Sereno defined Carcharodontosauridae as a clade, consisting of Carcharodontosaurus and all species closer to it than to either Allosaurus, Sinraptor, Monolophosaurus, or Cryolophosaurus. Therefore, this clade is by definition outside of the clade Allosauridae.
The cladogram below follows the analyses by Canale et al. (2022) from their description of the large carcharodontosaurine Meraxes.
In his 2024 review of theropod relationships, Cau recovered the following results for the Carcharodontosauridae.
While describing Tameryraptor in their phylogenetic analyses Kellermann, Cuesta & Rauhut (2025) recovered the following results. They recovered Lusovenator and Veterupristisaurus as Late Jurassic carcharodontosaurids. Taurovenator and Kelmayisaurus were recovered variably within or outside Carcharodontosauridae. Siamraptor and Concavenator were recovered as sister taxa outside of Carcharodontosauridae but still basal members of Carcharodontosauria in all analyses. Datanglong was consistently recovered as an indeterminate Carcharodontosaurid along with Veterupristisaurus. Neovenator, Eocarcharia, and Poekilopleuron were recovered outside of Carcharodontosauridae in all analyses, with Neovenator consistently recovered within Carcharodontosauria and sometimes as the sister taxon of Chilantaisaurus. Shaochilong was recovered as a tyrannosauroid rather than a carcharodontosaurid.
Bahariasaurus has also been proposed as a carcharodontosaurid, but its remains are too fragmentary to be certain.

## Paleobiology
### Growth

Osteohistological analysis of the Meraxes holotype specimen suggests the individual could have been between 39 and 53 years old when it died, having reached skeletal maturity approximately 4 years prior to its death (between 35 and 49 years old), making it the longest-lived non-avian theropod currently known. Meraxes was determined to have grown to large size by extending its growth period (hypermorphosis), rather than increasing its relative growth rate (acceleration) through development as in Tyrannosaurus, to which it was compared.