The Largest Theropod To Ever Live (Potentially)

The Late Cretaceous was home to some crazy, theropods that would make any predator today look like chumps. However, 30 million years before the world unlocked the Tyrannosaurus, a theropod emerged in South America that was crazy, even for theropod's standards, the Giganotosaurus!

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[hannahkimble]

I adore Giganotosaurus. It’s a shame it’s always compared to T. rex when it’s such a cool animal in its own right, but such is the plight of giant theropods, I suppose.

[skeeterinnewjersey]

This is why I smile when "experts" point out the small forelimbs of many large therapods as evidence that they were mere scavengers. With a jaw like that, who needs arms? Sharks don't have arms and they do just fine.

[mhdfrb]

Giganotosaurus in particular and the giant Carcharodontosaurids as a whole are in the unfortunate position of being fairly well known in the paleo community yet at the same time being quite underrated and overshadowed by the later Tyrannosaurines. In the worst cases, they are said to be inferior to the latter group for lacking their bone crushing bite, superb sense of sight and robustness (that last point is mainly in comparison to Tyrannosaurus rex not Tyrannosaurines as a whole)

However, I’d argue that (as with most cases of animals being compared in this way), neither group of apex giant theropods was superior and were each superbly adapted to their niche and lifestyles. Tyrannosaurines were built for attacking bony prey of similar size to themselves, oftentimes equipped with armor and horns, using their powerful jaws and thick spike like teeth to puncture, grip, and tear, like hyenas do.

The giant Carcharodontosaurids on the other hand, as their name implies, had teeth like sharks, laterally compressed, and serrated front and back. Their skulls were similarly streamlined and their tooth rows are straight and parallel, allowing them to act like saw blades, with each tooth playing the role of a serration. So what powered these jaws? For one, their bite, while weaker than that of Tyrannosaurines, was nothing to scoff at, if simply by virtue of their size. An 8 ton Carcharodontosaurus had an estimated bite force comparable to a 5 ton Tarbosaurus.

More importantly however was their powerful neck and back musclulature and ligaments strapped to enlarged neural spines. They also had adaptations of the skull and neck that facilitated a great degree of lateral motion and head stabilization, which would’ve allowed them to precisely track and strike at critical spots on prey. Once they sunk their teeth in, the aforementioned muscular pulley system of their necks and back would’ve allowed them to rock their heads in a craniocaudal motion with tremendous force, each stroke driving their long serrated teeth deeper through skin, flesh and ligaments, allowing them to carve out massive slices from prey.

So what were these Carcharodontosaurids hunting? Well, based on the fact that their biting mechanism was supremely adapted for carving big slices from softer targets, it seems reasonable to assume they went for large fleshy prey, such as the numerous Sauropods that often coexisted with them. In the case of Giganotosaurus, this would include various Titanosaurs and Rebbechisaurids. It might be hunting an Andesaurus, a small Titanosaur, using its slicing bite to cut into the area at base of the tail, slightly behind the legs, which might serve to: 1) sever the M. caudofemoralis, the most important locomotory muscle in any non avian dinosaur; 2) Cut through the caudal and/or femoral artery, inducing rapid shock through blood loss; 3) rupture the abdominal cavity for easier access to the viscera.

[riohudson]

T. Rex was basically a tank buster, built to break and crush the many powerful weapons of ornithischian dinosaurs. Giganotosaurus, on the other hand, was a giant slayer. It was lighter and thinner than T. rex but that would have made it faster and its specialized neural spines and teeth turned it's head into basically a sword compared to T. Rex's hydraulic crusher head. Giga was basically Captain Levi, speeding towards behemoths almost ten times its own size and cutting them down with slice after slice from its jaws. Truly far from inferior from a T. Rex, in fact one could say that they were each their own special kind of legend.

[JarodFarrant]

3:40 the thought that something that size could be not a fully developed adult yet terrifies me, something taller longer bigger. Well, thanks for the new nightmares. 😂

[GWolfV]

Largest is usually reserved for mass in science and while several theropods were longer and taller the biggest rex on record is an very big animal who was still growing and already outweighed others big theropods. Tyrannosaurs are just very heavily built for their size

[rileyernst]

One of my favorte therapods of all time. What I found quite remarkable about Giggy is that it essentially lived in some cool desert, which had a yearly average tempreture of just about 16'C and no humidity for most the year (Meaning at night you get that real drop in tempreture as there would be few clouds to blanket in the day's warmth). Sounds positively horrible. I can just imagine my boy Giggy on a cold winters morning hunched up behind anything to break the cold southerly breeze, trying to bask in the first rays of the winter sun's feeble warmth.

[TravelatorHr]

Say Giganotosaurus again. I want a giganotosaurus count on this video

[SuperCam-memj]

The Giga is my 2nd favorite theropod only behind the Rex. It’s crazy to think that only 2 specimens of giganotosaurus has been discovered. I hope we can find more fossils, more we fine, the more we can learned about this magnificent animal.

[prototropo]

Very impressive slate of detailed, relevant comparisons with others in its class, its era and its ecology. Great video!

[rique]

Happy to be here right after release, great video!!

[saladinbob]

It's funny that in movies you always see Therapods chasing humans around but to this thing (let alone the T-Rex) we'd not even be a snack.

[ExpiredPorridge]

I remember seeing it in primeval all those years ago, i remember calling it giganto-saurus for the longest time. fitting. Also Primeval absolutely slapped at the time, recommended

[hannahkimble]

Giant charcharodontosaurs are so cool because they’re specifically adapted for hunting the largest land animals of all time. T. rex is a fascinating animal (with possibly the best vision and bite force of any animal ever!), but its preferred prey were the mightiest ornithischians of the era, rather than the living kaiju that were sauropods. Also, T. rex is an outlier among tyrannosaurs, while Giganotosaurus is the peak of charcharodontosaur development, and a much better representative of its clade as a whole. They’re both cool animals, but I think the titan-slayers are my favorite.

[wpower]

One of my favorite dinosaurs thank you for making this video a scary huge powerful predator without a doubt

[megalodon]

One of my favorite dinosaurs. Never receives the attention it deserves. A truly fascinating animal.

[xwedel]

Because of how there's a debate on how the first 'g' is pronounced ([ʤ] or [j]), I went down a rabbit hole.

According to the english language it should be [j] because the first 'g' is followed up by 'i', however there's exceptions to this rule, such as the prefix Giga, but not gigantic.

So the way it is named, 'Giganotosaurus'; it could be either at first glance.

The name is "derived from the Ancient Greek words 'gigas' (giant), 'notos' (austral/southern), and 'sauros' (lizard). Therefore the 'giga' is seperate from the 'notos', and it isn't derived from 'gigantas', meaning in English it probably wouldn't follow the pronounciation set by "gigantic" but would rather follow the pronounciation set by the prefix "giga".

Basically, if you've been pronouncing the first 'g' as [j], you're unfortunately wrong. Even if it was an educated guess.

[amandylyn]

This was pretty cool. I love learning about dinosaurs.

I'd love to see you do a video about the dilophosaurus.

[OpalLeigh]

Definitely misread this as “the largest tripod to ever live” and was like “ah yes tell me more” 😂 this was good too tho!

[GG-jwpt]

I recently unearthed a Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Iguanodon each standing roughly six inches tall while exploring my mums attic. First discovered by me at the Natural History Museum in London on a school trip in 1979. 👍😆🇬🇧