[Adam Khor]

New theropod teeth from the latest Cretaceous (Maastritchian) of Brazil have been found and analyzed. Some of them seem to belong to abelisaurs, but the most interesting ones seem to be from carcharodontosaurs, which were supossed to have went extinct long before the late Cretaceous.
Of course, being just teeth, we can´t be sure- they may belong to some other kind of theropod that developed similar diet habits/teeth, or even to crocodilians. When the blade-like, serrated teeth sebecids were found for the first time, scientists believed non-avian theropods had made it to the Eocene in South America, because the teeth were so similar.

I have to admit it's an exciting idea, tho- to have T-Rex and carcharodontosaurs walking the Earth at the same time, albeit in different places.

http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs2/index.p...cle/view/21309

[Galvasean]

I guess we may soon be throwing out the conventional logic that carcharodontosaurs were outcompeted by smaller, 'more advanced' theropods. Perhaps another cases of 'lack of evidence =/= evidence of absence'.

[Adam Khor]

Originally Posted by Galvasean

I guess we may soon be throwing out the conventional logic that carcharodontosaurs were outcompeted by smaller, 'more advanced' theropods. Perhaps another cases of 'lack of evidence =/= evidence of absence'.

I think it makes sense that if carcharodontosaurs were specialized sauropod-hunters, and sauropods made it to the very end, there is no reason to suposse that carcharodontosaurus wouldn´t make it along with them. Perhaps they simply became rarer/less diverse, but then, same happened with tyrannosaurs in North America it seems.

[Galvasean]

I wouldn't pay too much heed to that idea. That recent study showed that sauropods were at their most diverse during the Maastrichtian (even more so than in the late Jurassic). I honestly think we'll find more and more Maastrichtian diversity. we just need to dig more!

[Adam Khor]

It seems there's also a maxilla of the late Cretaceous Brazilian carcharodontosaur, not only teeth. It was quite a bit smaller than its earlier relatives; its skull was only 80 cms long.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...95667112001176

[Galvasean]

So, considering the time ecological difference and smaller size we can assume this is a different genus to Carcharodontosaurus - any sign of a name yet?

[Adam Khor]

Not yet, to my knowledge.