ExtinctZoo - This Was The Spinosaurus's Real Opps

Episode Date: March 28, 2026

The T. Rex was the sworn enemy of the Spinosaurus, we all know this of course. The only thing is... it wasn't, and the two never even met, being separated by both time and place. BUT, there was a giant predator that did live alongside the Spinosaurus and definitely gave it a run for its money...

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Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Approximately 99 million years ago, the late Cretaceous was in full swing, and one of Earth's largest theropods to ever live was busy stomping and swimming around in northern Africa. And this was of course the Spinosaurus Egyptioccus. It was an absolute beast of a carnivore that measured up to 14 meters or 46 feet in length. and possibly weighed up to 7.5 tons, or maybe even 8 tons. And its sheer size, and the fact that it had a funky build, which obviously included the massive sale, has resulted in it over the years, becoming one of the most well-known dinosaurs

out there, and a fan favorite, mine included. And a lot of this also has to do with its portrayal in the third Jurassic Park, where it was pitted against the infamous T-Rex, leading to perhaps one of the greatest fights in the dinosaur community and contributing to the idea that these two were sworn enemies. And yet, the pair never met, not from a time perspective or even a place perspective. with the wrecks living in North America, not Africa. However, with that said, there was actually a theropod that did live alongside the Spinosaurus, which challenged its reign and was equally ferocious in its own ways,

possessing a bite so catastrophic and lethal that is often referred to as a giant land shark. And this would be the Carcrodontosaurus. Now, if you were a true fan of dinosaurs, or this channel, I imagine that you've already heard this name at least once. As in the last decade, the Carcrodontosaurus has picked up a lot of well-earned steam, becoming a rather recognizable theropod. But that being said, while this dinosaur has been popping off only recently, it has been known to the paleontological world for far longer, with this discovery tracing all the way back

to 1914, when a partially completed skeleton was on earth in Egypt near the Biharia Oasis by a German paleontologist. Unfortunately, there was a lot of political tension in the region at the time of the find, resulting into taking multiple years with the skeleton to move at all, only being sent to Germany in 22. And even then, it would go on to sit in storage for an additional nine years, just collecting dust, before it was finally described by Ernst Stromer, who recognized that its discovery not only represented a new species, but also a completely new genus, resulting in him describing the specimen as

Carcrodotosaurus Saharis. The species portion of the name, Saharisis, was an odd to where the body was unearthed, while the genus portion meant the shark-toothed lizard, which was a reference to the absolutely nightmarish teeth in this bad boy, which shared in uncomfortable resemblance the teeth of a great white shark. In addition to its very, let's say, peculiar dentition, it was also observed that Carcrodondosaurus possessed a multitude of other features that made it anything but your typical theropod. However, right before the research on the Carcordondosaurus was to be released, tragedy struck. As the place the skeleton was housed in, ended up taking a bomb to it during World War II, and thus leading to its utter destruction, along with eradication of many other valuable specimens.

Fortunately for the world, though, the Carcordondosaurus did not suffer the same final fate as other specimens did in lieu of World War II. As following the close of the war, more skeletons belonged to this imposing predator, were found, allowing us to better understand the many reasons why Carcrodondosaurus was such a successful predator in a land already filled to the brim with other carnivores, as well as, of course, a plethora of tough herbivores. And it seems that one of the more important reasons on how it became a nearly unstoppable killing machine was simply thanks to its ridiculous size. Now, the Spinosaurus alone was already one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs of not only the entire Cretaceous, but of all time. Yet, I guess that wasn't enough for North Africa, as it apparently said, let's run it back.

And boom, then we got the Carcordontosaurus, who was, like its neighbor, one of the largest carnivores to ever walk, period. Yet with that said, this glory does not extend to all Carcadontosaurus, as in 2007, a new species, dubbed the Equidensis, was described and was stated to only a measured about 10 meters or 33 feet in length, and weighed a maximum of around 4 tons, making it about the same size of the Tyrannosaur, Gorgosaurus. And while this is undoubtedly still large and very impressive, these measurements are not enough to make it into the list of Earth's largest megastricenegas. of pheropods. But the original species, Saharacus, that was a whole different story, as it got far larger. In fact, in 2007, it was estimated that full-grown individuals would have measured a whopping 13.3 meters or 44 feet from snout to tail, and weighed a Titanic 15.1 tons, which is true meant you could fit over 15 polar bears into a single individual and giving it an edge

over the likes of even the T-Rex. But, as you can maybe tell, these were overestimates. But it still was an absolute unit, with the most current estimates usually suggesting a length closer to 12.5 meters or 41 feet in length, while standing as tall as an African bush elephant at its hips. And scientists do think that the occasional mutant, so you could say, exceeded these measurements. We had larger specimens possibly being over 13 meters or 43 feet in length from snout to tail. And at this length it was obviously heavy, yet it turns out that it wasn't really 15 tons, instead weighing at most 7 tons, which, for perspective, is still over 100 times heavier than your average global Joe. while the more fair-sized individuals are thought to be closer to 5 tons, so similar in weight to that of an African elephant.

And at this size, the Carcrodontosaurus is often considered to be the fifth-largest theropod to ever live, which also means that it's literally the fifth largest carnivore to ever walk, which is certainly impressive and also means that it's not something I'm necessarily trying to see in person, if you get my drift. Because, as mentioned, its body size is not the only thing that animals had to worry about when dealing with the carcordontosaurus. In fact, one could argue that the true weapon of the Carcordondosaurus wasn't its length or weight, but rather its seriously nasty bite. As within the mouths of every Carcadondosaurus, you would have found at least 60 nightmares chompers that were as long or even longer than Swiss Army knives, and just as sharp.

And then on top of that, they were also lined with a vast amount of serrations, about 20 per 1 centimeter or 0.4 inches of edge. So in other words, each tooth had hundreds of these serrations. And so then when you combine all these pleasant traits together, you get to the same, you get teeth that are nearly similar to that of jaws, i.e. the great white shark, and terrifyingly, on a much, much larger scale. And thus, as a result of this, the carcrodontosaurus is capable of cheering massive chunks of flesh, muscle, and other gooey bits, off of large prey with just a single bite, with its serrations acting like many saws that added additional pressure to each

pointed contact, making each bite just that much more deep and devastating. And all this carnage was only exacerbated by the fact that its skull was also ridiculously large too, even when you consider its overall size. In fact, the most completed skulls paleontologists have found rivaled those of even the T-Rex, coming in at 1.6 meters or 5.2 feet in length. So for perspective, basically the size of a Grey Wolf's entire freaking body. However, unlike the skull of the T-Rex, the Carcrodontosaurus' skull was built much more graclyle and lighter,

as it did not rely on a crushing bite to finish animals off. Rather, it used lighter or weaker bites that relied on its teeth more than its muscles to tear and slice, provoking major blood loss, shock, and traumatic amputation, which honestly sounds a bit worse than getting crunched, in my opinion. And don't get it twisted. This isn't to say that Carcrodontosaurus had a weak bite either, as at its maximum power, it still mustered over 11,000 newtons of force in the front teeth, while the back teeth registered at 25,000 newtons of force, making it 39% more powerful than that of a great white shark and that of a saltwater crock. And so clearly at this power,

its teeth would have no problem slicing through soft flesh, and even hypothetically bone. Yet, Because its teeth were more nimble and slender, it probably would have at least tried to leave the harder bits alone, to avoid the need to go to a dentist, instead focusing that power more on removing entire sections of soft tissue from large animals. Yet, even when solely aiming for the more vulnerable parts of the dinosaur, it does seem that hunting got extremely bloody and messy, for the carcrodontosaurus, that is. Needless to say, definitely for the prey. As paleontologists now discovered that the carcordondosaurus had one of the highest tooth replacement rates of all theropods, indicating that was common for teeth that become lodged in meat during a third. attacks, and so conversely, this higher replacement rate would have helped mitigate the cost of biting the odd bone, or two. And other research in the hunting patterns of the supersized killer revealed that it was likely an ambush predator, as it possessed binocular vision and a skull angle

which was comparable to that of a crocodile, indicating that it probably scoped animals out using motion parallax, while using its narrow binocular vision to judge its distance from its prey and how to time attacks, before then using its long, powerful legs to run down the unsuspecting dinosaur, with surprising speed. As its hollow, slendered nature made it relatively fast for the time, for large theropod, let alone the fifth largest ever. And to go along with this deadly bite, the Kerkerdondosaurus actually possessed yet another weapon that was surprisingly located on its skull, its crests. You see, on every individual you would have found bony bumps that ran along its elongated

nasal's exposed sides. And in life, these bumps were probably extended by keratin chiefs, creating something akin to a horn or battering ram. And while it's not actually certain what these horns were used for, in recent times, paleontologists have started to believe that they were likely used to butt heads with the other than other carcordontosaurus, perhaps during fight over mates, territory, or resources, while also possibly being used to knock prey off balance and then allowing for a better placed bite. So, really bad time for any herbivore here. Now, despite its head possessing its most important and lethal features,

this theropod had a bunch of other tricks up its sleeves, or rather scales, that allowed it to become a nearly undisputed apex predator, one of which was actually its arms. Now, contrary to the popular belief that theropods in general, and especially the large ones, have only fairly tight and useless vestigial arms, the carcrodontosaurus had anything but that, and its arms were routinely used whilst hunting. In life, they were cited longer than the arms found in the T-Rex, and were deceptibly both robust and muscular. Inside his belief that these arms were used to grasp and hold onto prey in order to prevent any escapes, and it also may have used its arm to literally lift prey up as well, with one study in particular suggesting that an adult carcordondosaurus was capable of...

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at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Picking up a half-ton dinosaur straight off the ground and then lifting it into its mouth. So in other words, for the half-ton animals with Cretaceous North Africa, this theropod was straight up the boogeyman.

Additionally, the hands themselves were possibly used its slashing weapons, if each digit was equipped with a sharp, recurved claw, which, shockingly, could even be longer than some of its teeth. And so, this combination of its arms, teeth, vision, and size truly made the Carcrodot a source of a walking nightmare that every other dinosaur must have dreaded to encounter, including, by the way, itself. If over the years, multiple specimens have been found with varying breaks, infections, and puncture marks, usually to their heads, that have been suggested to come from their own kind, giving the idea that fights amongst the Titanic predator were actually commonplace, not an exception. The puncture wounds and infections are often attributed to facial biting,

whereas the breaks and bones are speculated to come from head-on collisions between two individuals' crests. But because paleontologists aren't positive on how durable the crests truly were, it's not 100% certain that they were behind the brakes and fractures that are often seen. Now, while these interspecies fights must have been a welcome site for other animals, as it meant they weren't the targets, right now, the Carcrodontosaurus, unfortunately for them, still spend most of its time hunting rather than starting beef with its own. And it's believed that these unfortunate victims consisted mainly of a mix of ornithopods, smaller theropods, and then even the giant sauropods, which actually they were possibly even specialized in, being just about the only predator in its region that could threaten a large one. So clearly, the Carcrodondosaurus definitely lived up to its name and gave its family a terrifying or beautiful.

And you might think that being a big scary theropod equals, well, a Tyrannosaur. But it wasn't, instead belonging to a completely separate family of theropods, known as a carcrodontosaurus, who were obviously named after our main character here. They first appeared in the fossil record during the latter part of the Jurassic period, and quickly spread throughout most of the world, with fossils being found in Africa, Europe, South and North America, plus possibly Asia and Australia too. And during their existence, this group would produce some of the most terrifying and largest predators to ever live, including the Carcardontosaurus, obviously, as well as all species

more closely related to it than to the Alasaurus, Sinraptor, Monolithosaurus, or the Crylofasaurus. And once you filter them out, you're left with the like of the giganodosaurus, Mappasaurus, acrocanthosaurus, and the Tyrannot titan, which were all absolute units. And so unsurprisingly, many members became extremely successful Apex predators, with the Carcardontosaurus, of course, being no exception. And it was also able to spread far and wide, but its remains being found throughout North Africa, such as in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Niger, and Tunisia, where it was, in fact, quite common. And it lived in these lands specifically between 100 and 94 million years ago, during the earliest stage of late Cretaceous, the Sennemanian. And of course, when you go back that

far, the world becomes very different. And North Africa was no exception to that. Currently, much of it is preoccupied by the giant Sahar Desert. Yet, back then, it didn't exist, and the region was relatively wetter, having made it to tropical humid zones, with a bit of arid regions sprinkled in as well. And then to add on to that, higher sea levels of the time also resulted in the coasts reaching much deeper into land and partially cutting the upper continent down the line, leading to more rivers forming over time and creating the presence of sprawling wetlands, forests, and mangroves, where gymnosperms and ferns were the dominant flora. And this all helped to create a very rich hotspot for life, which included a plethora of different dinosaurs.

And because the Carcrodontosaurus specifically is known for many of this region's formations, which were all extremely diverse, we know for a fact that it lived alongside a huge range of dinosaurs, that included the likes of giant saropods like the Egyptosaurus, dichreosaurus, rabacosaurus, and parallelititan, as well several types of Incalosaurus, iguanadontia, hadrosaurus, and even some of the last stigosauria. On top of that, the Carcidontosaurus also lived alongside numerous other theropods, which included the ablosaurus, Ruggops, and Delta Dromaeus, plus the enigmatic giant Bihariusaurus, and few other genera that have yet to be identified.

And what's crazy is that a shocking amount of these theropods actually came close to rivaling the size of the Carcodontosaurus. And then there was, of course, a spinosaurus as well, who even outsized it. And due to it having such a high number of large predators in saropods, many made the comparison in northern Africa, the Jurassic Morse formation of North America. It's believed that niche partitioning would have played a big role mitigating conflict between theropods, with dinosaurs like the spinosaurus, sticking closer to water and hunting more specialized aquatic prey, while the carcodontosaurus prefer to stay a bit more dry, living farther

inland and specializing a megafauna dinosaurs. However, with that said, there is no doubt that conflict still arose from time to time, especially because, similar once again to the morse formation, northern Africa seems to been prone to dry seasons that could linger on and become quite extensive, leading to large drops and resources and causing what would usually be avoidable confrontations. And that, my friends, is where the juicy question comes in, which is, who takes who in a fight, a spinosaurus or carcrodotosaurus. And obviously no one knows how this fight would go for sure, but I reckon that it would have come down to the specific Spino or or Karkinvolved in the battle. On paper, the Karkradontosaurus is much better suited for taking

down another giant animal, seeing that, well, that's what it was designed to do. Possessing a much more devastating bite that could definitely inflict monstrous damage in one go, whereas the Spinosaurus had a bite that was better for gripping and piercing slimy prey. So, not so great for inflicting mortal damage to something this size of a caradontosaurus, and unlikely would have taken multiple bites from a spinosaurus to have taken down our boy. But, there are two things we still have to consider. The first is that the Spinosaurus had massively long and robust arms, they came equipped a nearly giant claws. In its day-to-day life, these arms and claws were used to handle and manipulate the absolutely massive fish in the area, as well as rake their bodies apart.

And therefore in battle, they could have doubled as devastating sloshing weapons, with a well-placed strike causing serious damage, while also, given the Spinosaurus a reach advantage, so to speak. Now, the other part of this equation is the size difference, as overall the Spinosaurus was able to get larger than carcrodontosaurus. And I doubt a four-toned kark, for example, is going to be eager to take on an 8-ton Spinosaurus, let alone beat it. And frankly, at those size differences, I think the Spinosaurus would win just out of pure intimidation. On the flip side, I do reckon that a six-ton or heavier carclerodontosaurus could probably take on just about any spinosaurus, primarily because, again, it was designed for dealing with large, tough dinosaurs. Not to mention

the fact that it also had its horn-like cress that could have been used as another asset in battle. But again, this was probably not a likely scenario, Regardless, and another thing that would have helped North African theropods avoid fights with each other was the extremely high presence of non-dinosauria life in the region, that could be then used, of course, as alternative food sources. And their presence was largely thanks to the coastal regions and large amount of biomes that created an abundance of their life, the lengths of which is rarely seen in other Cretaceous formations. As, for starters, at least 11 different terosaurs were known to have lived in the same ecosystem as the Carcadontosaurus, which included tapajarids, Inhangerids, Ornitha Chiray, and as Darkids. with a huge range also being seen in size, with some being small to medium sized, while a few were able to reach over 20 feet in wingspan and stand taller than the vast majority of people. Unsurprisingly, crocodilomorphs were also plentiful and got into some of that giant's use

as well, with multiple genera being absolute giants, such as the Akasukas, making any venture into, or simply near the water, a rather questionable excursion. And perhaps one reason why both the crocs and pterosaurs were able to get so large was the fish in the area, as dozens of species were known of, of what some of them actually represent some of the largest freshwater fish to ever evolve, like the absurd celacanth, masonia. Snakes, turtles, lizards, crustaceans, and insects were just some of the other residents as well. And unfortunately for those with the entomophobia, which is, by the way, the fear of insects, we know that there was likely a lot of them. As much of the fossilized flora found in the

region show extensive signs of having been munched on by bugs. So, uh, bring some bug spray. Though, to be honest, I doubt it matter much when one of the many terrors of this region started to come straight for you. But in the end, while the terrors were pretty commonplace here, I do think the very worst thing you could have encountered, as far as survival odds go, was a big old Carcrodotosaurus when hungry, as it was without a doubt one of the most fearsome apex predators in the entire Cretaceous. And it would end up making its mark in the land and its inhabitants for for five million years. So it's a whole lot of carcordaosaurus. But it does seem that being the fifth largest land predator to ever live is still not enough to beat the final boss, which is

Mother Nature, of course, is roughly 94 million years ago, our protagonist abruptly disappeared from the fossil record, which is, the plight way of saying that it went super extinct. And as of now, it's not really known what exactly happened to this predator, but its disappearance does eerily line up well with the Cennomanian-Taronian boundary event, which was a period of time when oceans all across the world became inoxic, in other words, void of dissolved oxygen. In fun fact, and thankful fact, this is actually considered the last time the planet has truly experienced a global anoxic event. And like the disappearance of the Carcrodontosaurus, you could say that the cause behind this event is not fully understood, with many varying ideas being

suggested, especially a cooling event that had occurred just prior. Whatever the situation was, though, the point stands that life was heavily impacted, and this event ultimately became an extinction event. The peculiar thing is, though, the vast majority of the pain was seen in marine life, not terrestrial life, which is why it's hard to pin to Carcadontosaurus's disappearance on it. But regardless, one thing is very, very clear. By the time the asteroid arrived to the Earth, 66 million years ago, this mighty beast was already long gone. Thanks for watching, and until next time, on Extinct Zoo.

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