Bahariasaurus
speciesbox | fossil_range = Late Cretaceous, | genus = Bahariasaurus | parent_authority = Stromer, 1934 | species = ingens | authority = Stromer, 1934 | synonyms = Deltadromeus? Sereno et al., 1996 Bahariasaurus (meaning "Bahariya lizard") is an enigmatic genus of large theropod dinosaur. Bahariasaurus is known to have included at least 1 species, Bahariasaurus ingens, which was found in North African rock layers dating to the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous. The only fossils confidently assigned to Bahariasaurus were found in the Bahariya Formation of the Bahariya (Arabic: الواحة البحرية meaning the "northern oasis") oasis in Egypt by Ernst Stromer but were destroyed during a World War II bombing raid with the same raid taking out the holotype of Spinosaurus and Aegyptosaurus among other animals found in the Bahariya Formation. While there have been more fossils assigned to the genus such as some from the Farak Formation of Niger, these remains are referred to with much less certainty. Bahariasaurus is, by most estimations, one of the largest theropods, approaching the height and length of other large bodied theropods such as Tyrannosaurus rex and the contemporaneous Carcharodontosaurus. The aforementioned estimations tend to put it at around 11–12 metres (36–39 ft) in length and 4 tonnes in overall weight. Bahariasaurus was found during the 1910s during an expedition to Egypt's Baharija Formation led by Markgraf and Stromer, and the holotype was discovered in 1911. The type species, B. ingens, was described by Ernst Stromer in 1934. This specimen was destroyed in an air raid during World War II on the night of 23/24 April 1944. The questionable remains of Bahariasaurus from the Farak Formation of Niger, which consist of a proximal caudal centrum (65 mm), two mid caudal centra and three mid caudal centra (from different individuals) were discovered some time later during the 20th century and described by de Lapparent in 1960. It is possible that these remains may have belonged to another unrelated theropod.