Forgotten fossil turns out to be a new dinosaur species
For 100 years, it slumbered in a drawer at the Natural History Museum in London – the skull fragment of a previously unknown dinosaur species. The discovery proves for the first time that megaraptors also lived in Europe during the Cretaceous period.
A fossil that was overlooked in a British museum collection for 100 years has turned out to be a new species of carnivorous dinosaur. The tiger-sized predator was likely a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex.
The skull fragment was once discovered on the Isle of Wight in England and acquired by the Natural History Museum in London in 1924. It rested there for many years until a team from University College London took it on. Using computed tomography (CT), the experts led by paleontologist Cassius Morrison scanned the fossil and compared it with the skull bones of other dinosaurs.
A unique combination of features, such as the oval shape of the foramen magnum (a hole in the bone through which the brain and spinal cord connect) and an hourglass-shaped crest, revealed that it was a new species from the megaraptoran family – agile, bipedal carnivores that were closely related to tyrannosaurs. Unlike T. rex, however, they had slender heads and attacked their prey with their large arms and huge curved claws rather than their jaws.
Source: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
The team named the new species Invictibellatrix amberina, with the genus name translating to "undefeated warrior." It is the first specimen of this group to be found in Europe; the dinosaur lived in the Early Cretaceous period about 120 million years ago. "The new species is the first evidence that megaraptorans were also present in Europe and reached Gondwana this way, instead of hopping from island to island further south," said co-author Charlie Scherer in a press release.
"Based on what we know about its closest relatives, Invictibellatrix would have been three to four meters long and just over a meter and a half tall – about the size of a human. The animal likely had feathers, and its claws could have been about 10 to 20 centimeters long. It would have eaten small dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals – and occupied a similar role in the food chain as the hyena does today," explains Morrison.
It is a real mystery why this fossil was overlooked for so long and lay in a drawer for a century. "Many bones are found on the Isle of Wight – who knows what else is waiting to be discovered," says the paleontologist.
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