A fossilised skull fragment collected over a century ago and stored in a London museum has been identified as a new species of meat-eating dinosaur, marking the first time a megaraptoran has been discovered in Europe. The roughly 120 million-year-old specimen spent nearly 100 years overlooked in a Natural History Museum collection after being acquired in 1924 following the death of amateur palaeontologist Reginald Walter Tooley, who originally found the bone at the foot of a cliff on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight.
A Century in Storage Yields Europe’s First Megaraptoran
The discovery was detailed in a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Led by Cassius Morrison, a paleontologist at University College London, the research team used micro-computed tomography scans to create three-dimensional reconstructions of the skull and endocast. Computer algorithms analyzing the skull’s traits consistently placed the specimen within the megaraptoran family. The bone featured an unusual combination of anatomical characteristics, including an hourglass-shaped crest and an oval opening where the spinal cord entered the braincase.
Invictibellatrix Amberina Used Powerful Arms and Giant Claws
Named Invictibellatrix amberina — translating to an unconquered female warrior of the amber
— the dinosaur belongs to a group of agile, two-legged carnivores closely related to tyrannosaurs. While tyrannosaurs relied primarily on their massive jaws, megaraptorans attacked prey using slender heads, powerful arms, and giant curved claws.
Researchers estimate that Invictibellatrix amberina measured between three and four meters in length and stood just over a meter and a half tall. Based on comparisons with its closest relatives, this made it roughly human-sized and one of the smallest and earliest known members of its group.
Invictibellatrix amberina, a predator in the megaraptoran group of dinosaurs, lived in what is now Britain 120 million years ago and may have had claws 20 centimetres long https://t.co/81KZFr0yZ5 pic.twitter.com/RJXRBSR0Me
Scientists suggest the animal likely possessed feathers and carried curved claws measuring 10 to 20 centimeters. In its ecosystem, the predator would have hunted small dinosaurs, lizards, and mammals, occupying an ecological role in the food chain comparable to that of a modern hyena.
While Invictibellatrix was not an apex predator, Morrison noted in statements reported by the Natural History Museum that the dinosaur would have posed a significant danger to humans. People would have matched the proportions of its potential prey at roughly a third of the dinosaur’s body weight.
In contrast, an adult Tyrannosaurus rex would have sought out much larger prey and likely ignored a human. Science journalist Sergio Parra noted that this comparison is entirely hypothetical, as humans emerged millions of years after both species became extinct, and refers strictly to each animal’s potential interest in human-sized prey rather than an experimental measurement of overall dangerousness.
Tracing Megaraptoran Evolution Across Continents
Before this identification, megaraptorans were known primarily from the early Cretaceous period in Thailand and Japan, as well as later periods in Australia and South America, particularly Argentina, where they evolved into gigantic apex predators with claws reaching up to 35 centimeters long.
Because large animals could not swim across the vast oceans separating those ancient continents, researchers theorized that megaraptorans must have originated in Asia and traveled through Europe and Africa toward the southern landmass of Gondwana before disappearing from the northern landmass of Laurasia. The discovery of Invictibellatrix provides physical evidence supporting this migration route, suggesting that other undiscovered megaraptoran species may be hidden in historical collections or waiting to be found in Africa and Antarctica.
Professor Paul Barrett, senior author of the study from the Natural History Museum, emphasized the value of examining museum archives, noting that despite centuries of collecting on the Isle of Wight, carnivorous dinosaur finds have remained scarce.