Bahariasaurus

Say it: ba-HAH-ree-uh-SORE-us

Name means: “Bahariya lizard”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosEarly Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Bahariasaurus was a huge meat-eating dinosaur that lived in North Africa about 95 million years ago. It was as big as Tyrannosaurus rex, with a long tail and strong legs for chasing prey. This giant predator shared its swampy home with Spinosaurus and other dinosaurs.1

Lived

113 to 66 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Egypt (Bahariya Oasis) and Niger2 1

Food

Meat2 1

Length

11 to 12.2 m1

Weight

4 tonnes to 4.6 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 3 cars

as long as 2.5 cars parked in a rowas long as 68 bananas end to endabout as heavy as an elephantas heavy as 920 watermelons

How big was Bahariasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Bahariasaurus is known from only a few bones, including vertebrae and hip bones, because most of its fossils were destroyed in a World War II bombing raid in Munich.1

It lived alongside other giant predators like Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus in a mangrove forest by the Tethys Sea.1

Some scientists think Bahariasaurus might be the same dinosaur as Deltadromeus, another large theropod from North Africa.1

Bahariasaurus was about 11 to 12 metres long and weighed around 4 tonnes, making it one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs.1

Its fossils were first dug up in 1914 by Austrian paleontologist Richard Markgraf, but they didn't reach Germany until 1922 because of political problems.1

The Bahariya Formation where Bahariasaurus lived was a wet, coastal environment with many fish, sharks, and turtles.1

AI-made picture of Bahariasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Bahariasaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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Myth buster

Myth: Bahariasaurus was a small, unimportant dinosaur.

Truth: Bahariasaurus was actually one of the largest theropods, similar in size to Tyrannosaurus rex.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Bahariasaurus
Named by: Stromer 19342
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Avetheropoda2
Classification: Theropoda2
Age of the rocks: 113 to 66 million years (Albian / Maastrichtian)2
Rock formations: Baharîje, Echkar, Dukamaje2
Countries: Niger, Egypt2
Fossil records: 5 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Bahariasaurus was named by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1934, based on fossils found in Egypt by Richard Markgraf in 1914.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Bahariasaurus is the same dinosaur as Deltadromeus, or if it is a distinct species.1

Where the facts come from

Bahariasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Bahariasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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