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A dinosaur fossil that spent almost a century in the collections of London’s Natural History Museum has been identified as a new species.
The skull fragment belonged to Invictibellatrix amberina, a previously unknown carnivorous dinosaur that lived around 120 million years ago. It’s also the first confirmed evidence of a megaraptoran dinosaur in Europe.
The fossil was originally discovered at the foot of a cliff on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight by amateur fossil hunter Reginald Walter Tooley. After his death in 1924, the Natural History Museum acquired more than 1,000 specimens from his collection, including the fragment.
Although scientists knew it belonged to a dinosaur, exactly which one remained a mystery for decades.
Now, researchers have taken another look at the fossil using CT scanning technology, allowing them to examine its internal structure and create a 3D model. Their full findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
“More dangerous than a T.rex”
Professor Paul Barrett, the study’s senior author from the Natural History Museum, says, “Despite over 200 years of collecting, the Isle of Wight continues to surprise us with new dinosaur species, and finds of carnivorous dinosaurs, such as Invictibellatrix, have been particularly elusive.”
“Work like this shows the exceptional value of working with historical museum collections where there are still many discoveries to be made,” he added.
Despite their name, megaraptorans were not the small, bird-like dinosaurs we commonly associate with the word “raptor”. They were larger predators, more closely related to tyrannosaurs, with “slender heads”, “large arms” and “giant curved claws”, according to the Natural History Museum.
Invictibellatrix amberina is estimated to have measured between 3 and 4 metres (10 and 13 feet) in length and stood around 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall. It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems.
Researchers have also suggested that it may have had feathers, although its exact appearance still remains uncertain.
According to Dr Cassius Morrison, a researcher at the University College London’s (UCL) Earth Sciences department, the species would have eaten small dinosaurs, lizards and mammals – similar to the role in the food chain a hyena holds today.
“It was not the apex predator of its time, but for humans this dinosaur would have been more dangerous than a T. rex. We would have been perfectly sized prey, about a third of their body weight. They definitely would have chased us. A T. rex would not have bothered, as we would have been too small,” explains Dr Cassius Morrison, who led the study.
The discovery is particularly exciting because megaraptorans have previously been identified in Asia, Australia and South America, but never conclusively in Europe.