カルカロドントサウルス

📖 1. 概要

ホホジロザメの歯に似た平たいノコギリ状の歯で巨大竜脚類を狩っていた北アフリカの巨大獣脚類です。

🌐 Wikipedia 要約抜粋

Carcharodontosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in Northwest Africa from about 100 to 94 million years ago during the Cenomanian age of the late Cretaceous period. The genus was first described in 1925 by French paleontologists Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin as Megalosaurus saharicus, based on two fossil teeth discovered in Algeria, which are now lost. A partial skeleton was discovered in Egypt as early as 1914 by crews of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, although he did not report the find until 1931. Based on this specimen as well as the teeth previously described by Depéret and Savornin, Stromer established the genus Carcharodontosaurus, with C. saharicus as the only species. Although the Egyptian skeleton was destroyed during World War II, it was redescribed as a closely related but distinct genus, Tameryraptor, based on historical photographs in 2025. In 1995, a large incomplete skull attributed to C. saharicus was discovered in the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco, which was officially proposed as the neotype in 2007. In the same year, fossils unearthed from the Farak Formation of Niger were described and named as another species, C. iguidensis, though this taxon might belong to a different genus.

🦴 2. 体の構造と特徴

頭骨の長さだけで1.6mに達し、カミソリのような歯で大型の獲物の肉を切り裂いていました。

🔍 3. 化石記録と古生態

水生魚類を狩ったスピノサウルスと同時代の北アフリカにおいて、生態的地位を二分していました。

🇰🇷 4. 韓国との関わり

白亜紀中期のアジア・アフリカにおける獣脚類進化研究の基準種です。