17 Facts About Giganotosaurus

Giganotosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is Argentina, during the early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.

Giganotosaurus was one of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, but the exact size has been hard to determine due to the incompleteness of the remains found so far.

Part of the family Carcharodontosauridae, Giganotosaurus is one of the most completely known members of the group, which includes other very large theropods, such as the closely related Mapusaurus and Carcharodontosaurus.

Giganotosaurus is thought to have been homeothermic, with a metabolism between that of a mammal and a reptile, which would have enabled fast growth.

Giganotosaurus found it remarkable that the two animals were found within a year of each other, and were closely related, in spite of being found on different continents.

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In 2012, the paleontologist Matthew T Carrano and colleagues noted that though Giganotosaurus had received much attention due to its enormous size, and in spite of the holotype being relatively complete, it had not yet been described in detail, apart from the braincase.

Giganotosaurus conceded that with only one good Giganotosaurus specimen known, it is possible that larger individuals will be found, as it took most of a century to find "Sue" after Tyrannosaurus was discovered.

Giganotosaurus is thought to have been one of the largest theropod dinosaurs, but the incompleteness of its remains have made it difficult to estimate its size reliably.

Giganotosaurus has been compared to an oversized version of the well-known genus Allosaurus.

Giganotosaurus did not have a sagittal crest on the top of the skull, and the jaw muscles did not extend onto the skull roof, unlike in most other theropods.

The side teeth of Giganotosaurus had curved ridges of enamel, and the largest teeth in the premaxilla had pronounced wrinkles.

Giganotosaurus is one of the most complete and informative members of Carcharodontosauridae.

The subfamily Carcharodontosaurinae, in which Giganotosaurus belongs, appears to have been restricted to the southern continent of Gondwana, where they were probably the apex predators.

In 2002, Coria and Currie found that various features of the rear part of the skull indicate that Giganotosaurus would have had a good capability of moving the skull sideways in relation to the front neck vertebrae.

In 2005 Therrien and colleagues estimated the relative bite force of theropods and found that Giganotosaurus and related taxa had adaptations for capturing and bringing down prey by delivering powerful bites, whereas tyrannosaurs had adaptations for resisting torsional stress and crushing bones.

The bite force of Giganotosaurus was weaker than that of Tyrannosaurus, and the force decreased hindwards along the tooth row.

Giganotosaurus was discovered in the Candeleros Formation, which was deposited during the Early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.