Tameryraptor
| Tameryraptor Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
| Photograph of the holotype before its destruction in 1944 | |
| Skeletal reconstruction of the holotype with known material in white | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Carcharodontosauria |
| Family: | †Carcharodontosauridae |
| Genus: | †Tameryraptor Kellermann, Cuesta & Rauhut, 2025 |
| Species: | †T. markgrafi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Tameryraptor markgrafi Kellermann, Cuesta & Rauhut, 2025 | |
Tameryraptor ("thief from the beloved land") is an extinct genus of large carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian age) in what is now Egypt. It is known from a partial skeleton collected in rock layers from the Bahariya Formation by crews of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1914, comprising an incomplete skull, vertebrae, and several other postcranial elements. Stromer described the specimen in 1931, referring it to the previously named Megalosaurus saharicus on the basis of its tooth anatomy, and placing it in a new genus, Carcharodontosaurus. In 1944, it was destroyed in the Bombing of Munich during the Second World War. The specimen remained assigned to Carcharodontosaurus saharicus until a review of photographs of the fossil material in 2025 allowed researchers to recognize the material as belonging to a distinct taxon known from a single species, Tameryraptor markgrafi.
Tameryraptor is one of many large carcharodontosaurid dinosaurs. It is the only known African carcharodontosaurids found that preserved a partial postcranial skeleton. Like its relatives, it had a large, lightly-built skull, but was distinct in that it bore a distinctive horn-like protuberance on its snout. Its vertebrae were sturdy but contain depressions where air sacs would be present. Several other gigantic theropods are known from Egypt during this period, including the spinosaurid Spinosaurus, the controversial Bahariasaurus, and unnamed large abelisaurids.