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 for the largest carcharodontosaurids, while the smallest carcharodontosaurids were estimated to have weighed at least .

== Discovery and history == left|thumb|259x259px|Lost original teeth of Carcharodontosaurus (Megalosaurus) saharicus (Fig. 1-2), the [[lectotype being at the top (Fig. 1)]] The earliest discovery of carcharodontosaurid fossils may date to 1835 with the discovery of Poekilopleuron in Jurassic-aged sediments in Normandy, France and it was then described in 1836 by French naturalist Jacques Amand Eudes-Deslongchamps. However, the holotype (name-bearing) specimen, which consisted of an incomplete postcranial skeleton, was destroyed during World War II. Due to the fragmentary and destroyed nature of Poekilopleuron's fossils, little can be ascertained about its phylogenetic position or validity. However, recent phylogenetic analyses have recovered it as a basal carcharodontosaurid or carcharodontosaurian, though it has also been classified as a metriacanthosaurid, megalosauroid, or another position in Carnosauria. If not Poekilopleuron, the oldest discovery of carcharodontosaurid fossils would be between 1909 and 1913 with the discovery of Veterupristisaurus in the Jurassic-aged Tendaguru Formation of Lindi, Tanzania. These fossils, consisting of several caudal (tail) vertebrae, were described by German paleontologist Werner Janensch in 1925 as belonging to an indeterminate large theropod. However after further study in 2011, German paleontologist Oliver Rauhut concluded that these vertebrae belonged to a novel genus and species of carcharodontosaurid which he named Veterupristisaurus milneri.