Sauroniops is a controversial, potentially dubious, genus of carnivorous basal carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian stage) of Morocco.

[1] In the early twenty-first century a collector donated a dinosaur skull bone to the Italian Museo Paleontologico di Montevarchi.

Later research showed that it presented a new species that was in 2012 reported and described by Andrea Cau, Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia and Matteo Fabbri.

[3] The same year, 2012, the specimen was, by the same authors, formally named in a subsequent publication as the type species Sauroniops pachytholus.

The generic name has the intended meaning of "Eye of Sauron", a powerful entity from The Lord of the Rings fantasy novel by J.R.R.

Near the contact with the lacrimal the bone is extremely thickened to a height of seventy-three millimetres and vaulted; a second thick area is present at the rear separated from the first by a hollow surface.

A more extensive cladistic analysis in the naming paper showed a more basal position in the same group as a sister species of Eocarcharia.