Carcharodontosaurids
The carcharodontosaurids were a group of giant carnivorous dinosaurs that rivalled and even exceeded Tyrannosaurus in size. Scientists have calculated that one of them, Giganotosaurus, could run at 50 km/h, which is just slower than an ostrich, but 13 km/h faster than a gold medal-winning Olympic sprinter. Carcharodontosaurids were top predators in the ancient continent of Gondwanaland: the area of the world that's now the southern hemisphere continents - South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia - and India. They evolved from an Allosaurus-like ancestor and became extinct about 89 million years ago.
Scientific name: Carcharodontosauridae
Rank: Family
Carcharodontosaurids (from the Greek Carcharodontosauros: "shark-toothed lizards") were a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs. In 1931 Ernst Stromer named Carcharodontosauridae as a family, in modern paleontology this name indicates a clade within Carnosauria. Carcharodontosaurids included some of the largest land predators ever known: Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Tyrannotitan all rivaled or exceeded Tyrannosaurus in size.
Rank: Family
Shark-toothed lizards
