New dinosaur species discovered from fossil ‘overlooked’ for over 100 years
The tiger-sized predator fills a gap in megaraptoran evolution and suggests the group spread from Asia into Europe, researchers said.
- University College London researchers identified a century-old Natural History Museum skull as a new megaraptoran species, Invictibellatrix amberina, which prowled the Isle of Wight around 120 million years ago.
- Found at the foot of an Isle of Wight cliff in 1924 by amateur palaeontologist Reginald Walter Tooley, the fragmented braincase sat in a Natural History Museum drawer for nearly 100 years until researchers re-examined it recently.
- Dr. Cassius Morrison, a researcher at the University of Leeds, said megaraptorans were "agile hunters capable of chasing down prey" with 10cm to 20cm claws used to hunt small dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals.
- Invictibellatrix serves as the first European megaraptoran, confirming the group spread globally from Asia into Gondwana before the asteroid strike 66 million years ago. Study co-author Charlie Scherer said the findings "help to uncover the evolution of one of the most mysterious theropod groups."
- Unlike Tyrannosaurus rex, Invictibellatrix would have viewed humans as "perfectly sized prey," Morrison noted. The researcher called it a "real mystery" that the fossil was overlooked for nearly 100 years, underscoring untapped potential within museum collections.
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A new species of dinosaur, a long-clawed predator the size of a large tiger, has been identified based on a fossil found on the Isle of Wight more than a century ago.
Newly Discovered Tiger-Sized Dinosaur Is The First Of Its Kind Found In Europe
Built like a miniature, opposite-day T. rex, with a slender head and long arms, the descendants of this megaraptor would become major predators in the southern hemisphere later in the Cretaceous.
New dinosaur species discovered in UK after fossil left in drawer for 100 years
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered because of a fossil found on the Isle of Wight that has been “sitting in a drawer” for more than a century. المصدر: skynews technology The post New dinosaur species discovered in UK after fossil left in drawer for 100 years appeared first on khbrknews.
It is a new species of dinosaur with long claws.Dinosaur belongs to a group of agile carnivores and bipeds called megaraptorans and is the first of this group to have been found in Europe.
New dinosaur species found after Isle of Wight fossil 'overlooked' for a century
The long-clawed predator, the size of a large tiger, would have been "more dangerous than a Tyrannosaurus rex" to humans, researchers said. The fossil had been left in a drawer after being acquired by the Natural History Museum in 1924.
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