The size of Carcharodontosaurus

Carnosaur

A long standing competitor for the title of largest carnivorous dinosaur, but how big was it really?

Let's take a look at a section of Wikipedia article:

"Carcharodontosaurus is one of the longest and heaviest known carnivorous dinosaurs, with various scientists proposing length estimates ranging between 12 and 13 m (39-43.5 ft) and weight estimates between 6 and 15 metric tons. "

between 6-15 tons? say whaaattt?

I've never understood why there are such extremely high weight estimates for Carcharodontosaurus. 

What's more, the second species C. Iguidensis was thought to rival the size estimates of Saharicus, and will also be discussed here. But, to get a better understanding of Carcharodontosaurus, we can look at a close relative...a species i have covered in this series: Giganotosaurus.

The skull of the new Scott Hartman's G. carolinii holotype reconstruction is 1.57m, about the same as the 1.56m for the neotype of C. saharicus (1.6m is rounded up) which seems pretty reasonable when both skulls have pretty much the same dimensions where they overlap (from Sereno's orginal paper). also, C. iguidensis didn't had a 1.75m skull nor it was 14m long, that all is made up by the press and mischievous sites, the actual paper by Brusatte and Sereno makes no mention of any skull or body length estimates and the only references of size is that it was the same size as the neotype of C. saharicus 

Sereno estimated the femur length of C. saharicus neotype at 1.45m, compare that to the 1.43m of the G. carolinii holotype, they're for all intents and purposes the same size, though if the 8% bigger specimen of Giganotosaurus is really 8% bigger and not just bigger headed (Stan, an 11.8m T. rex has a skull about the same size as Sue's) then we can say that it was bigger but it won't be definitive because we've only got 2-3 specimens for both.

Carchy seems too fragmentary to determine a difference at all, though going by skeletal reconstructions it has likely a slightly more slender body and less elongated skull.

To sum it up, Carchy had an overall lower TBL and was probably a little lighter then Giganotosaurus, being morphilogically more slender. My estimations put this guy at around 12.4 meters and 6.5-7 tons. Moreover, these carcharodontosaurs weren't the hype that media articles made them out to be. Estimations were oversensationalized, making these enigmatic beasts larger then they were in life. A common trend in large theropods.

Dynamosaurus Imperiosus/ Raptorexxx 700

Really interesting Carnosaur you know what this series is shaping up to be The Tyrant Lizard King's return to the throne!!! :)

Lord Vader

 Interesting, and looking forward to the Rex one. 

Rex Fan 684

I can agree with this. I usually estimate Carcharodontosaurus to be 11-12 meters long and 5-7 tons.

Hiphopananomus

Those sizes are fairly reasonable, I ussualy estimate it a bit higher but, everybody has different estimates. :)

Carnosaur

I thought Carchy was bigger going into this thing, but apparently it got quite the size revision...still one of my personal favorites

Rexy will be posted up in the next couple days..debating on if i should do Shantungosaurus before it or not

Rex Fan 684

Hmm, Shantungosaurus eh? I've always been one for the lower size estimates(12-14 meters long and 7-9 tons).

Carnosaur

instead of the 18-19 meter. 14 ton ones? me too, will start digging around on it tonight!

Rex Fan 684

Sounds good :)

Hiphopananomus

I've a

ways viewed shantungo at about, 15 meters and 10 tons. That's just me though.

Carnosaur

it's still one of the biggest non-sauropod animals to ever walk the planet, It's size has just been up in the air for decades now, there may even be two species!

Sci-Fi King25

Pretty good estimates Carnosaur.

Bistahieversor

Hhhm seems a bit off. First off many estimates by various paleontologists conclude carchas skull to be anything around 1.57m-1.62m which is only a 5cm difference. Giga’s skull is around 1.51m it was possibly heavier than carcha but was slightly shorter. Now since these 2 animals are closely related to each other then this means the skull to body ratio should be relatively the same. (12.4m divided by 1.51m gets us 8.21) so the ratio is 1:8.21 plug it in for carcha and you get 12.88m (1.57m skull) and 13.3m (1.62m) for carcha. I wouldn’t say carcha was slim since its relativity to tyrannotitan, giganotosaurus, mapusaurus etc. Only the skull was slim but skull slimness is common for these carnosaurs. Carcha and giga are closely related to each other meaning body proportions were almost the same so since carcha was longer it would make sense for it to be slightly heavier. I will now accurately assume the mass:

12.88m= 6850kg

13.3m= 7000kg

therefore if I’m not mistaken carcha was quite larger than your estimations.