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Yesterday (Ish, whose counting lol) we discussed megaraptorans of an alternate world were they became the dominant predators of South America and hunted the massive sauropods. Now, we discuss the role of the clade they swapped places with: the giginotosaurine carcharodontosaurs, who have taken up the role of small game specialist mesopredators.
This brings us to Carcharodromaeus venatorus ("hunting shark-toothed runner"), a large giganotosaurine in this timeline. However, while certainly a large predator by most standards, it's only about the size of a man and more built for speed than power. With the macropredatory niches occupied, these carcharodontosaurs have instead specialized to tackle smaller, fast moving prey like ornithopods and small theropods. Their long, slender legs afford them a large stride length and their caudofemoralis muscles are massive, at the expense of some tail flexibility. This allows them to make great burst of speed to pursue prey.
However, despite the change in niche, their skulls are identical to giganotosaurines in our timeline, adapted for slicing bites that allow them to hunt a wide range of prey. Their serrated teeth allow them to easily slice through flesh and cause massive blood loss while they run their prey down, causing them to collapse from exhaustion and shock. This slicing ability also aids in the processing of the kill, making the most of the carcass before larger predators can take it away.
Let this thought experiment be a lesson on how small changes can make big differences in the evolution of our world.

Description
Yesterday (Ish, whose counting lol) we discussed megaraptorans of an alternate world were they became the dominant predators of South America and hunted the massive sauropods. Now, we discuss the role of the clade they swapped places with: the giginotosaurine carcharodontosaurs, who have taken up the role of small game specialist mesopredators.
This brings us to Carcharodromaeus venatorus ("hunting shark-toothed runner"), a large giganotosaurine in this timeline. However, while certainly a large predator by most standards, it's only about the size of a man and more built for speed than power. With the macropredatory niches occupied, these carcharodontosaurs have instead specialized to tackle smaller, fast moving prey like ornithopods and small theropods. Their long, slender legs afford them a large stride length and their caudofemoralis muscles are massive, at the expense of some tail flexibility. This allows them to make great burst of speed to pursue prey.
However, despite the change in niche, their skulls are identical to giganotosaurines in our timeline, adapted for slicing bites that allow them to hunt a wide range of prey. Their serrated teeth allow them to easily slice through flesh and cause massive blood loss while they run their prey down, causing them to collapse from exhaustion and shock. This slicing ability also aids in the processing of the kill, making the most of the carcass before larger predators can take it away.
Let this thought experiment be a lesson on how small changes can make big differences in the evolution of our world.