Giganotosaurus carolinii was a theropod dinosaur of the carcharodontosaurid lineage that prowled South America between 99 and 97 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period. When it was first discovered in the 1990s, much was made about how it could have been even larger than the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, yet further research has suggested that the two dinosaur species were of roughly similar size, with T. rex possibly being more heavily built and therefore more massive. Nonetheless, Giganotosaurus would have been a formidable predator in its own right, likely preying on long-necked sauropods such as Andesaurus and Limaysaurus.