carcharodontosauridae predator or prey?

[Haravex]

so was ti prey or apex predator? This is a partial femur measauring in at 24 1/2 inches or 627mm purchased from a dealer in Merzouga, it has been with him for around three months watched his co workers dig it up cam from the layer of conglomerate sediment.

[Troodon]

Nice big femur fits Carch in size, is it hollow?  Your question is an old one when it comes to large theropods.   My feeling is that Carcharodontosaurids were active predators and opportunistic scavangers but who knows since we know so little about this group of dinosaurs.   The best information comes from species found in South America.  Its arm was robust with three hand claws that were more useful than Trex, so they could be an aid in predation.  It very large head with mega long teeth got that way for a reason and I doubt it was solely from scavaging.   My opinion.

[Haravex]

i will do a video tomorrow

[Haravex]

sorry it has taken me so long to get around to this, so firstly yes it is hollow will post a picture of it's hollowness tomorrow if you would like. I needed to get it cleaned and prepped up a bi more to show the predation marks to it. 

I have a few ideas what might have caused this bite mark, and too me maybe just me looks like what did it struggled to stay latched on it also looks ti me like it has healed but would love some further input into it.

[Haravex]

excuse the poor work in gimp to highlight where the conical shaped hole impressions are.

[LordTrilobite]

I'd say it's hard to tell if those marks are new or old. But I will say that that shallow groove on the right does look like an old mark.

[Haravex]

I was going to go with elosuchus as the predator to it's failure it gives me a new respect for the crocs of this area but would love more input @Troodon

[LordTrilobite]

I don't think you can attribute this to any specific predator. I'm not even completely sure these are actual predation bite marks. They might be bite marks. But without a deep tooth mark there's not a whole lot you could do to match it to anything I think.

[Troodon]

Always a tough call.  I'm hesitant to call any of those marks predation other than that long gouge unless there is clear evidence of biting.   Evidence can be serration marks, a deep uniform depression that resembles a croc or theropod tooth etc.   Those roundish marks are not uniform,  don't really show any penetration and look like flaking. There are two depressions in one of the other photos that do resemble croc. but there is no way to attribute it to any specific family or if it's actual predation.

 

I posted this topic last year but there is a picture of a toe bone with a clear croc bite. 

In my Sept dig found this Edmontosaurus caudal vert with what appears to be theropod tooth gouges, on both sides, who knows

[Haravex]

Well thanks to the limit put on files I cannot explain my theory