New Species of Predatory Dinosaur Identified in UK

A fossilized braincase that sat in in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London for a century has been identified as Europe’s first megaraptoran dinosaur, a lineage once thought to have flourished mainly in the southern hemisphere.

Artists’ rendition of Invictibellatrix amberina with contemporary fauna in the lower part of the Wessex Formation. Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy / Pedro Salas.

Named Invictibellatrix amberina , the new species belongs to a group of agile, two-legged carnivores called megaraptorans .

The animal roamed Earth during the Early Cretaceous, approximately 120 million years ago.

Its braincase came from the foot of a cliff at Sudmoor Point, near Brook, on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight.

“It was purchased by the Natural History Museum in London from Rev. R. W. Hooley in May 1924,” said University College London paleontologist Cassius Morrison and colleagues.