Original holotype, BSP 1922 X-46, was destroyed in World War II. Neotype designated by Brusatte & Sereno (2007).

Megalosaurus saharicus was named by Depéret and Savornin (1925). Its type specimen is BSP 1922 X-46; SGM Din-1 (neotype), a set of teeth, and it is a 3D body fossil.

It was recombined as Dryptosaurus saharicus by Depéret and Savornin (1928); it was recombined as Megalosaurus (Carcharodontosaurus) saharicus by Lapparent (1947) and Furon (1963); it was recombined as Carcharodontosaurus saharicus by Stromer (1931), Stromer (1934), Stromer (1934), Stromer (1936), Kuhn (1939), Lavocat (1954), Lapparent (1957), Lapparent (1958), Steel (1970), Langston (1974), Molnar (1974), Taquet (1977), Taquet (1984), Bouaziz et al. (1988), Paul (1988), Molnar et al. (1990), Buffetaut et al. (1990), Molnar (1992), Rauhut (1995), Larsson (1996), Russell (1996), Novas (1997), Le Loeuff (1997), Currie and Padian (1997), Novas (1997), Sereno et al. (1998), Novas et al. (1999), Larsson (2001), Lamanna et al. (2002), Rauhut (2003), Holtz et al. (2004), Novas et al. (2005), Buffetaut et al. (2005), Novas et al. (2005), Malkani (2006), Regagba et al. (2007), Sampson and Witmer (2007), Brusatte and Sereno (2007), Taquet (2010), Paulina Carabajal and Canale (2010), Cavin et al. (2010), Benson et al. (2010), Hone et al. (2011), Carrano et al. (2012), Fanti et al. (2012), Le Loeuff et al. (2012), Torices et al. (2012), Paulina Carabajal and Currie (2012), Cau et al. (2012), Candeiro et al. (2012), Galton and Molnar (2012), Canale et al. (2013), Belvedere et al. (2013), Novas et al. (2013), McFeeters et al. (2013), Fanti et al. (2014), Dalman (2014), Hendrickx and Mateus (2014), Xing et al. (2014), Evers et al. (2015), Chiarenza and Cau (2016), Hendrickx et al. (2016), Coria and Currie (2016), Delcourt (2018), Delcourt and Grillo (2018), Candeiro et al. (2018), Hassler et al. (2018), Ibrahim et al. (2020), Bessedik et al. (2020) and Salem et al. (2022).