#sauroniops

[si-nequal-is]

Sauroniops pachytholus, probably one of the most controversial carcharodontosaur

[mesozoicmarket]

A dinosaur tooth of an indeterminate carcharodontosaurid, possibly cf Carcharodontosaurus sp. from the Kem Kem Group in Taouz, Morocco. It's unclear what the tooth morphology of Sauroniops pachytholus is to know for sure if it can be distinguished from Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. While Sauroniops may not be diagnostic down to the genus level, and thus a nomen dubium, it is at the very least typically found as a basal carcharodontosaurid similar to the older Eocarcharia dinops. Thus, it is likely that these more derived carcharodontosaurid teeth belong to Carcharodontosaurus and the more basal Acrocanthosaurus-like teeth belong to Sauroniops. But it is entirely possible that there are additional taxon. Ironically, despite the name, Carcharodontosaurus does not actually possess shark-like teeth like the destroyed Egyptian specimen now referred to as Tameryraptor markgrafi. While Ernst Stromer likely intended the name Carcharodontosaurus for Tameryraptor, due to the weird rules of taxonomy, the name goes to the Moroccan neotype being closer to the Algerian Megalosaurus saharicus tooth taxon than to Tameryraptor.

[jef-jaxon]

See a Sauroniops.

[ultimate-character-design]

The 2nd Character Design Tournament

Please remember to vote for characters solely based on their design, rather than which character you are more familiar with or like more!

The Eye of Sauron | Lord of the Rings

“-Has a whole dinosaur named after them, Sauroniops

-The fiery color of the eye contrasts beautifully with the dark, imposing tower

-It looks like a cat’s eye

-The Eye is always watching”

Qifrey | Witch Hat Atelier

[No propaganda submitted]

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

I propose calling Saurolophus "Saur" from now on. Or "Sauron" for a cutesy nickname.

But what about Sauroniops???

[blueberryrock]

tell me about the sauron dino

Well i dont know much about this funky guy yet, but his name is the Sauroniops aka eye of sauron 💀 and looks something like this

I love him sm and the nerds that named his species, also here's the wikipage about him, he twas found in Morocco and lived in the late Cretaceous period

[toomanyfacts]

(15) Some animals are so unique. They have scientific names of silly and questioning things.

From a characteristic

Rhinoceros unicorn "one horn" (Rhinoceros)

Cephalopod "Headfoot" (Octopus and Squid)

gastropoda "Stomach feet" (Snails and Slugs)

ailuropoda "cat feet" (Pandas)

bitis (Viper)

Place found

Ursus americanus (American black bear)

Crocodylus siamensis (Siamese crocodile)

Macaca sylvanus "the Roman god of woodlands, fields, and flocks." (Barbary macaque)

Rattus latrinum

Named after People

Scaptia beyonceae (Horse fly)

Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi (Trapdoor spider)

Aptostichus stephencolberti (Trapdoor spider)

Tosanoides obama (Obama's basslet)

Neopalpa donaldtrumpi (Moth) has a golden scaly head

Agathidium bushi (Round fungus beetle)

Heterospilus reagani (Parasitic wasps )

Etheostoma jimmycarter (Bluegrass darter)

Anophthalmus hitleri (Blind cave beetle)

Named after Fictional Characters

Agathidium vaderi (Round fungus beetle)

Eriovizia griffondori ('Sorting hat' spider)

Darthvaderum (Mite)

Sauroniops "Eye (of) Sauron" (Dinosaur)

spongiforma squarepantsii (Fungus)

Binburrum moltres (Fire-colored beetles)

Binburrum zapdos "

Binburrum articuno "

Repeating words (usually sub-species)

Equus quagga quagga (Extinct South african zebra)

Equus ferus ferus "wild wild" (Eurasian wild horse)

Panthera pardus pardus "spotted spotted" (African leopard)

Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Western Lowlife Gorilla)

[justaforestbug]

(15) Some animals are so unique. They have scientific names of silly and questioning things.

From a characteristic

Rhinoceros unicorn "one horn" (Rhinoceros)

Cephalopod "Headfoot" (Octopus and Squid)

gastropoda "Stomach feet" (Snails and Slugs)

ailuropoda "cat feet" (Pandas)

bitis (Viper)

Place found

Ursus americanus (American black bear)

Crocodylus siamensis (Siamese crocodile)

Macaca sylvanus "the Roman god of woodlands, fields, and flocks." (Barbary macaque)

Rattus latrinum

Named after People

Scaptia beyonceae (Horse fly)

Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi (Trapdoor spider)

Aptostichus stephencolberti (Trapdoor spider)

Tosanoides obama (Obama's basslet)

Neopalpa donaldtrumpi (Moth) has a golden scaly head

Agathidium bushi (Round fungus beetle)

Heterospilus reagani (Parasitic wasps )

Etheostoma jimmycarter (Bluegrass darter)

Anophthalmus hitleri (Blind cave beetle)

Named after Fictional Characters

Agathidium vaderi (Round fungus beetle)

Eriovizia griffondori ('Sorting hat' spider)

Darthvaderum (Mite)

Sauroniops "Eye (of) Sauron" (Dinosaur)

spongiforma squarepantsii (Fungus)

Binburrum moltres (Fire-colored beetles)

Binburrum zapdos "

Binburrum articuno "

Repeating words (usually sub-species)

Equus quagga quagga (Extinct South african zebra)

Equus ferus ferus "wild wild" (Eurasian wild horse)

Panthera pardus pardus "spotted spotted" (African leopard)

Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Western Lowlife Gorilla)

[angstybreadstyx]

Dinomsaurb

-sauroniops: eye of sauron. Pachytholus: thick dome

-Sauroniops was from the Late Cretaceous Morocco and is a member of the charcharodontisauridae family.

-The reason it was named after the LotR villain was because the Holotype (first specimen found) was just a bone on the top of its eye socket. This uh continues to be the only bone we have, so it’s up in the air whether it’s its own genus or if it’s a baby form of a different charcharodontisaurid.

[superterrane]

Sauroniops

[ermingarden]

I honestly find it a bit difficult to take Sauron seriously as an antagonist because I study Ancient Greek and σαύρᾱ (saúrā) means lizard.  Every time I see “Sauron” in the text my brain automatically replaces it with “lizard", e.g.:

“Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly a lizard made One Ring to rule all the others...And much of the strength and will of the lizard passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and the lizard forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow.”   

I mean, Professor, your conlangs are great, but maybe you should’ve changed something when you realized your antagonist was essentially named “Lizard Guy”.

[mud-goth]

sauroniops and juvenile spinosaurids

[mesozoicmarket]

A crocodylomorph tooth, likely an Elosuchus cherifiensis from the Gara Sbaa Formation, Kem Kem Group in Iferda N'Ahouar, Morocco, otherwise known as "Area 13". These Cenomanian aged Kem Kem crocs are commonly mistaken for Sarcosuchus imperator from the older Elrhaz Formation. The serration-like features often present on the carinae of some crocodylomorphs has occasionally made collectors mistake them for baryonychine spinosaurids. This material is often lumped into Elosuchus, but there could potentially be other large crocs. Elosuchus lived alongside other crocodylomorphs as well as dinosaurs like Spinosaurus, Sigilmassasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Sauroniops, Rugops, and Rebbachisaurus.

[ultimate-character-design]

The 2nd Character Design Tournament

Please remember to vote for characters solely based on their design, rather than which character you are more familiar with or like more!

The Eye of Sauron | Lord of the Rings

“-Has a whole dinosaur named after them, Sauroniops

-The fiery color of the eye contrasts beautifully with the dark, imposing tower

-It looks like a cat’s eye

-The Eye is always watching”

Crewmate | Among Us

“Very simple and iconic design”

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Carcharodontosaurus

By Ripley Cook 

Etymology: Jagged Tooth Reptile

First Described By: Stromer, 1931

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Carnosauria, Allosauroidea, Allosauria, Carcharodontosauria, Carcharodontosauridae, Carcharodontosaurinae

Referred Species: C. saharicus, C. iguidensis

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: Carcharodontosaurus lived from about 112 million years ago until 93.5 million years ago, from the Albian through the Cenomanian of the Early to Late Cretaceous 

Carcharodontosaurus lived in a wide variety of environments - the Continental Intercalaire Formation of Algeria and Tunisia, the Chenini Member of the Aïn el Guettar Formation of Tunisia, the Bahariya Formation of Egypt, the Mut Member of the Quseir Formation, the Aoufous and Ifezouane Formations of Morocco, and the Tagrezou Sandstone and Echkar Formations of Niger.  

Physical Description: Carcharodontosaurus was a very large theropod dinosaur - one of the biggest known, in fact - and a Carnosaur, a group of predatory dinosaurs which were extremely common from the Jurassic through the early-middle Cretaceous. Like other large meat eating dinosaurs, they had short arms, strong necks, and huge heads - meaning, they manipulated and interacted with their environment primarily through their heads, and relied on their jaws for capturing and taking down prey. Carcharodontosaurus was one of the longest predatory dinosaurs, ranging up to 13.3 meters long, and weighing between 6.2 and 15.1 tons. A good chunk of that length was made up of the skull of Carcharodontosaurus, which was truly enormous - as long as 2 meters.

That mouth was filled with long, sharp, serrated teeth, reaching up to 8 inches in length - these teeth are so distinctive that the animal was named for them! Carcharodontosaurus had a brain very similar to that of its earlier relative, Allosaurus, and seemed to have a well developed sense of smell and sight. Still, it was of typical intelligence for a non-avian dinosaur. It had a triangle inner ear configuration like Allosaurus and other nonavian reptiles, but the brain projected into the area of the canals like the situation found in other theropods, birds, and pterosaurs. 

Size Comparison (Carcharodontosaurus in purple, second from the left) by Dinoguy2, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Carcharodontosaurus was fairly long in body besides the huge head, with a long tail and long torso. Its legs were fairly well developed, but not as thickly muscled as those found in, say, Tyrannosaurs and Abelisaurs. It also probably had a crest on its head, which would have been helpful in display. As a large animal, it is very unlikely for it to have had feathers - if it did, they would have been solely ornamental in function (it is important to note, of course, that its close relative Concavenator may have had proto-wings, but this is a hotly debated topic, and Concavenator was smaller than Carcharodontosaurus by a lot).

Diet: Carcharodontosaurus would have been a hypercarnivore, feeding primarily on other larger animals, especially sauropods.

Behavior: Carcharodontosaurus was an extremely common animal in North Africa during the middle Cretaceous, and so it isn’t unlikely that it lived at least in family groups, potentially forming mobs to take down particularly large sauropod prey. It would have used its jaws to take down food, opening them wide and using the teeth to slash at prey and leading to it bleeding out so that Carcharodontosaurus could proceed to feeding. It would have relied on it’s decent sense of smell to find food, using it to help pinpoint food from far and wide in its environment. It could even lift animals weighing up to a thousand pounds with its jaws, so if it didn’t want to work together in a group of bring down larger food, it could grab a variety of snacks just to have on its own.

If Carcharodontosaurus lived in groups, they weren’t the most congenial of family arrangements - there are fossils of Carcharodontosaurus that indicate it was wounded with something that made circle punctures in the bone, which sounds about right for fighting with another Carcharodontosaurus. Still, it seems at least somewhat likely that this animal would have cared for its young in some form. 

By Fred Wierum, CC BY-SA 4.0 

Ecosystem: Carcharodontosaurus lived in a variety of ecosystems across North Africa in the middle Cretaceous, in a variety of different environments. It lived in open floodplains, as well as near mangrove forests, but not as associated with wet ecosystems as Spinosaurus was. It would have fed almost entirely on land-based prey, and thus, didn’t come into competition with Spinosaurus very frequently.

Carcharodontosaurus lived in the Bahariya Formation of Egypt, with Spinosaurus, Sigilmassasaurus, Deltadromeus, and Bahariasaurus as other theropods. There were huge titanosaurs for it to feed on, namely Aegyptosaurus and Paralititan. This was an environment filled with confirers, water ferns, and tree ferns, as the climate switched between the swamp to a drier environment due to dramatic seasonal fluctuations.

It was also found in the Mut Member of the Quseir Formation, a more muddy environment than the Bahariya Formation; though Carcharodontosaurus lived alongside Spinosaurus, it’s uncertain what Carcharodontosaurus would have eaten - no major land animals are known from this environment.

Carcharodontosaurus in Tunisia is known from the Chenini Member of the Aïn el Guettar Formation, which was also a water based environment with Spinosaurus and many fish, but the other dinosaurs present - which would have probably been Carcharodontosaurus’ main source of food - are not formally named.

Also in Tunisia, and Algeria, Carcharodontosaurus was in a drier, pebbled environment, probably at least something of a scrub environment, though there were some cycads and conifers. Here it lived alongside animals like the sailed sauropod Rebbachisaurus, and the weird theropod Elaphrosaurus. There was also the large crocodilian Sarcosuchus, and many different reptiles and fish. 

By Scott Reid 

In Morocco, Spinosaurus is known from the famous Kem Kem Beds - a flooding river ecosystem, with distinct dry and wet seasons. The Aoufous was the earlier environment, followed by the Ifezouane environment. Here, Carcharodontosaurus lived alongside Spinosaurus, Deltadromeus, and Sigilmassassaurus - as before - but also other theropods like Sauroniops and Inosaurus. Rebbachisaurus was here too, a good source of food for Carcharodontosaurus. There were large fish, crocodilians, and pterosaurs like Alanqa, Siroccopteryx, Colobrhynchus, and Xericeps - other decent sources of food, if only Carcharodontosaurus can catch them.

Carcharodontosaurus, finally, is known from the Echkar Formation of Niger. Here, it lived alongside Spinosaurus and Bahariasaurus, as well as Spinostropheus and Rugops, and the large sauropod Rebbachisaurus and Aegyptosaurus - a great place for Carcharodontosaurus to find food.

Other: Carcharodontosaurus, like Spinosaurus, was actually lost during World War II, because nazis literally ruin everything. Fossils of it have been found since, and luckily it doesn’t seem to be quite as much of a mystery as our old sailback friend.

Species Differences: C. saharicus comes from more northern locations of Africa, while C. iguidensis is more from the south. They also have somewhat differently shaped jaws and brains.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut

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Bassoullet, J.-P. and J. Iliou. 1967. Découverte des Dinosauriens associés à des Crocodiliens et des Poissons dans le Crétacé inférieur de l'Atlas saharien (Algérie) [Discovery of dinosaurs associated with crocodilians and fish in the Lower Cretaceous of the Saharan Atlas (Algeria)]. Société Géologique de la France, Comptes Rendus Sommaire des Sciences 1967:294-295

Bouaziz, S., E. Buffetaut, M. Ghanmi, J.-J. Jaeger, M. Martin, J.-M. Mazin, and H. Tong. 1988. Nouvelles découvertes de vertébrés fossiles dans l'Albien du sud tunisien [New discoveries of fossil vertebrates in the Albian of southern Tunisia]. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 8e série 4(2):335-339

Brusatte, S.L. and Sereno, P.C. (2007). "A new species of Carcharodontosaurus (dinosauria: theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Niger and a revision of the genus." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 27(4).

Buffetaut, E. 1989. New remains of the enigmatic dinosaur Spinosaurus from the Cretaceous of Morocco and the affinities between Spinosaurus and Baryonyx. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 1989(2):79-87

Calvo, J.O.; Coria, R.A. (1998). "New specimen of Giganotosaurus carolinii (CORIA & SALGADO, 1995), supports it as the largest theropod ever found" Gaia. 15: 117–122.

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Larsson, H.C.E. 2001. Endocranial anatomy of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (Theropoda: Allosauroidea) and its implications for theropod brain evolution. pp. 19–33. In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. Ed.s Tanke, D. H., Carpenter, K., Skrepnick, M. W. Indiana University Press.

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Sereno, P. C.; Dutheil, D. B.; Iarochene, M.; Larsson, H. C. E.; Lyon, G. H.; Magwene, P. M.; Sidor, C. A.; Varricchio, D. J.; Wilson, J. A. (1996). "Predatory Dinosaurs from the Sahara and Late Cretaceous Faunal Differentiation". Science. 272 (5264): 986–991.

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[moderndrawingsofdinosaurs]

Sauroniops

Sauroniops is also known as Eye of Souron,

Is a extinct genus of carnivorous basal carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian stage) of Morocco.