Giganotosaurus Facts for Kids
JIG-uh-NOT-oh-SORE-us · its name means “giant southern lizard”
A giant meat-eater from Argentina that rivals T. rex in size.
Giganotosaurus was a giant meat-eater. It walked on two legs and had a huge head. It lived in South America.
Giganotosaurus had a long, narrow head with teeth shaped like blades, and strong legs for walking. Its arms were short. Its name means giant southern lizard, because it lived in the south of the world, long before T. rex lived in the north.
Giganotosaurus was one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs known, in the same class as T. rex. It was not a close cousin of T. rex, though: it was closer kin to Allosaurus. It lived in Patagonia, in the same part of the world as Argentinosaurus, one of the biggest plant-eaters. An amateur fossil hunter spotted its first bones sticking out of the ground.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Giganotosaurus?
Giganotosaurus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 49 ft15 m1estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 8.8 tons8 tonnes1estimate |
| When it lived | 100 million years ago100 million years ago1about |
| What it ate | big plant-eating dinosaurs |
| Fossils found in | Patagonia, in the south of Argentina |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- Its name means giant southern lizard.
- It was a closer cousin of Allosaurus than of T. rex.
- An amateur fossil hunter spotted its first bones in Patagonia.
🦴 Giganotosaurus’s bones
Books about Giganotosaurus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Giganotosaurus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Giganotosaurus lived, 100 million years ago. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Smithsonian Institution (si.edu), educator's guide for the film Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Giganotosaurus (Q14438), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).