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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45 Articles
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.
Kreiszeitung
The Invictibellatrix amberina was discovered using a fossil acquired by the Natural History Museum in 1924.
Fossil kept in drawer for a century sheds light on enigmatic meat-eating dinosaurs
The partial skull of a tiger-sized predator that prowled what is now the Isle of Wight off England’s southern coast about 120 million years ago is giving scientists a better understanding of an enigmatic group of meat-eating dinosaurs known for running down prey and ripping them apart with massive hand claws.
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