25 Facts About The Giganotosaurus For Kids
One of the largest Carnivores ever to walk on Earth, it has been outshined somewhat by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. However Giganotosaurus was certainly a dinosaur to take notice of. Discovered later let T-Rex grab the attention and imagination of children and adults all over the world, but its recent appearance in Jurassic World Dominion has sparked that curiosity again. We have 25 giganotosaurus facts for you below to learn more about this huge dinosaur!
Giganotosaurus was one of the largest predatory dinosaurs. It lived in the cretaceous era approximately 96 million years ago. it belongs to the Carcharodontosauridae family which means shark toothed. Growing over 40 feet long, weighing up to 20,000 lbs with razor sharp teeth it was the apex predator of its time.
We also have printables to download and collect here for you, and these are included on our other dinosaur facts pages as well if you wanted to make a set or a collection. We also have some cool dinosaur stuff at the bottom of the page if you want to check that out too.
Quick Giganotosaurus facts
It was up to 40 feet long (maybe even longer) and could weigh over 20,000 lbs
The giganotosaurus had a very large skull could grow to over 6 feet long.
it was a carnivore and he giganotosaurus was a likely to be an aggressive predator
The giganotosaurus is a pretty new discovery. It was discovered in 1993
The giganotosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 99-96 million years ago.
The giganotosaurus name means “giant southern lizard”
Dinosaur names can be difficult to say, giganotosaurus is pronounced like this Gig-a-no-toe-saw-rus and it has 6 syllables.
25 Facts About the Giganotosaurus for Kids
We have 25 facts about the giganotosaurus below and have included a printable to download and collect. We hope they are useful for you!
1. The giganotosaurus was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs to walk the earth. It was up to 40 feet long maybe even longer and could weigh over 20,000 lbs This would make it even bigger than T-Rex.
2. The giganotosaurus had a very large skull could grow to over 6 feet long. The head had powerful jaws and razor sharp teeth that could easily tear through meat.
3. The giganotosaurus had incredibly strong legs however before 2017 it was thought it might be quite a fast runner. A study in 2017 on T-Rex suggested these dinosaurs were so big that it would be difficult to run fast without causing damage to bones. This study suggested this would be the case for most large carnivorous dangerous like Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus and others.
4. The Giganotosaurus has been compared to an over sized allosaurus, and may not have been quite as big as we first thought!
5. The giganotosaurus was a likely to be an aggressive predator and remains have been found next to fossilized sauropods (long necked dinosaurs) which may have formed a large part of its diet. Maybe even the huge argentinosaurus.
6. The giganotosaurus, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex had two fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot.
7. The giganotosaurus was an carnivore, meaning that it ate meat.
8. The giganotosaurus is a pretty new discovery. It was discovered in 1993, but luckily the fossilized skeleton found was about 70% of the whole dinosaur.
9. Giganotosaurus, was a member of the Carcharodontosauridae (shark toothed dinosaurs) family. Others in the family are Neovenator and Mapusaurus.
10. The giganotosaurus lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 99-96 million years ago.
Spinosaurus and dinosaur coloring pages
11. The giganotosaurus was one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs ever to live, though quite how big is still a matter for debate.
12. The giganotosaurus was first discovered in Argentina in 1993, and was named in 1995.It was found by Ruben Carolini while he was riding a dune buggy!
13. The giganotosaurus name means “giant southern lizard”
14. The giganotosaurus had a small brain, about half the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which was shaped like a banana! So it wasn’t a very clever dinosaur.
15. The giganotosaurus had teeth as long as 8 inches that were sharp, serrated like a shark ( hence the name) and would have cut through meat like a shark.
16. The giganotosaurus may have hunted the large sauropods like argentinosaurus and titanosaurus which were huge bite marks have been found in the fossils of these animals.
17. The giganotosaurus might have hunted these huge dinosaurs in a pack, as attacking and killing a titanosaurus would be difficult and dangerous for one giganotosaurus. Mapusaurus is a family member of giganotosaurus and there is fossil evidence that shows it may also have hunted in packs.
18. The giganotosaurus is in the Jurassic World Dominion Movie, both in the prologue on You tube and in the main movie. However it shows the giganotosaurus and the T-rex having a fight ( and the t-Rex losing again!). this could not have happened as the T-Rex and Giganotosaurus did not live at the same time or the same place! they were 30 million years apart.
19. The giganotosaurus had as many as 60 razor sharp teeth in its mouth.
20. The giganotosaurus had a large part of its brain (small as it was) dedicated to smell ( called olfactory) so it had a likely had a good sense of smell.
21. The giganotosaurus walked on two legs, like other large carnivores, it had small forearms that would not have supported its weight.
22. If the giganotosaurus was a fast and agile runner, it is estimated to have been able to run at about 30 miles and hour or 50km per hour. However as we mentioned above this is not agreed by scientists.
23. The giganotosaurus was warm-blooded. the scientific term is homeothermic and it means they kept a stable core body temperature.
24. The giganotosaurus was the apex predator and the environment it lived in had rivers, swamps and steams, and plants and trees to support the huge sauropods it ate.
25. Dinosaur names can be difficult to say, giganotosaurus is pronounced like this Gig-a-no-toe-saw-rus and it has 6 syllables.
Gig-a-no-toe-saw-rus
Conclusion
Tyrannosaurus may have captured the imagination as the most popular dinosaur, but as we learn more and more it might be challenged. Fossil hunters have found dinosaurs that are larger and have “more teeth”
Giganotosaurus may or may not have been bigger than a T-Rex but either way this Apex predator was an incredible dinosaur and we look forward to learning more about it.
Hopefully these Giganotosaurus facts have been helpful ! For more information on this fascinating dinosaur, and other disaours be sure to check out the links below and the other pages on the site Thanks for reading!
Some of My Dinosaur Resource Recommendations for Home and School.
Thanks for taking the time to read our facts and questions articles, as a teacher myself i have struggled to find resources in one place and that is why this website was born. I simply love teaching students about dinosaurs both in my role as a language and General Studies teacher. However there is sometimes a need for something more concrete than a printout (as useful as we think ours are! )
There is something awesome about the feeling of awe that these amazing creatures instil in our children and students. To further help you, and potentially me, i have included a few resources below that i have found to be incredibly successful when explaining dinosaurs to children, these range form books and resources, to toys fossils and dinosaur figures.
Sometimes having something tactile to touch in those tiny hands help to focus and cement learning and develop those big brains! Hope they are helpful too.
Dinosaur Books and Readers
There are of course hundreds of excellent, and not so excellent books on Dinosaurs for Children out there. So rather than, yet, go into huge detail. I will highlight the ones I love to use with my students from ages 6 to 10. We have include AR in these as well. ( nothing quite like a moving dinosaur in front of you!
Fossil Sets
I cant say how great these are to use in a classroom while reading with a group. the chance to read about a dinosaur and then touch a real piece is simply great. I have a selection ( self confessed dinosaur geek) but a cheap set of 10 or so will do the trick just as well. Dinosaur poop is great as well!!! i pass it round and ask them to guess what it is first!
Dinosaur Figures
I actually use realia in a lot of classes especially with animals and dinosaurs, and figures help to show the kind of animal we are reading about. It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on dinosaur figures but there is no need, either as a teacher or a parent. The set below and similar we have used to help students picture dinosaurs to great effect.
References
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5518979/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3979427
https://www.activewild.com/giganotosaurus-facts-information/
Hi, I am Roy Ford a General Studies and English Teacher who has taught all over the world. What started as a fossil collection became a great way to teach, motivate and inspire students of all ages and all over the world about dinosaurs and from that and children’s love of dinosaurs came the site dinosaur facts for kids, a resource for all ages.
