Carcharodontosaurus was a allosaurid dinosaur closely related to allosaurus .
Carcharodontosaurus ("shark-toothed reptile ") was a gigantic carnivorous allosaurid dinosaur that lived approximately 98 to 93 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. It rival Tyrannosaurus rex in size, growing to a predictable length of 45 feet (13.5 meters) and weighing up to eight tons.
Paleontologists once thought that Carcharodontosaurus had the longest skull of any of the theropod dinosaurs. However, the premaxilla and quadrate bones were missing from the original African skull, which led to misinterpretation of its actual size by researchers. A more self-effacing length of five feet, four inches (1.6 meters) has now been proposed. Thus, the honor of the largest theropod skull now belongs to another huge allosaurid dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus's close relative Giganotosaurus.
Carcharodontosaurus fossils were first established by Charles Deperet and J.Savornin in North Africa in 1927.