Carcharodontosauridae, Stromer, 1931

Carcharodontosauridae

At least two species are known from the Kem Kem Group (although some studies consider only one species— Ibrahim et al. 2020a). A nearly complete skull and some vertebral elements of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus were described by Sereno et al. (1996), in which a neotype was designated, recovered from the Douira Formation, south-eastern Morocco ( Sereno et al. 1996, Ibrahim et al. 2020a). An isolated and fragmentary portion of a dentary [originally referred to an abelisaurid by Russell (1996) —see Ibrahim et al. (2020a)] can also be assigned to C. saharicus . A second carcharodontosaurid species, Sauroniops pachytholus , was erected by Cau et al. (2013) based on an almost complete frontal. Later on, Paterna and Cau (2023) also referred additional materials (a partial maxilla and a jugal) to Carcharodontosauridae , discussing the status of both— Carcharodontosaurus and Sauroniops . A probably indeterminate carcharodontosaurids manual ungual [ Ibrahim et al. (2020a), originally described as Theropoda indet. by Russell (1996)] adds to the fossil record of this clade.

Here we also provided the description of an isolated ischium we identify as an indeterminate carcharodontosaurid (NHMUK PV R 16437), adding to the fossil record of this clade from the Kem Kem Group.