Carcharodontosaurus Tooth, from Morocco (No.3)

Carcharodontosaurus is a genus of carnivorous dinosaur that existed between 112 and 93.5 million years ago, during the Albian to early Turonian stages of the mid-Cretaceous Period.

First discoveries of these fossils were made in Egypt in the 1920s. These finds, along with Spinosaurus, were housed in the Munich’s Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Historical Geology. Unfortunately the building was destroyed in 1944 during World War 2 and new discoveries were not made until many years later.

Carcharodontosaurus is named after the shark genus Carcharodon, itself composed of the Greek karchar[os], (meaning "jagged" or "sharp") and odōn ("teeth"), and the suffix-saurus ("lizard"). ("Shark lizard").

Roaming coastal mangrove swamps of what is now North Africa Carcharodontosaurus could weigh up to 6.6 tons and had curved and serrrated teeth that could be up to 20cm (8inchs) which were set into a 1.5 meter long (5ft) skull and with a body perhaps up to 13 meters (43ft) in length. It was a formidable carnivore. 

Whether Carcharodontosaurus was bigger or smaller then other prestigious carnivores of the dinosaur world such Tyrannosaurus-Rex is debatable. Some studies have suggested it was less intelligent, the braincase being 150 per cent bigger on a Tyrannosaurus. Either way Carcharodontosaurus was ferocious predator of its time.