The Invictibellatrix is estimated to have been about four meters long, similar height to a human, feathered, and have 14-inch claws. They were related to the Tyrannosaurus rex, and believed to have ranked similarly to hyenas in the Cretaceous food chain.
Lead author of this research, Dr Cassius Morrison (UCL Earth Sciences) spoke to The Cheese Grater and described the discovery of the first megaraptoran in Europe as “incredibly surreal and like a dream.”
“This is the stuff of movies.”
Dr Morrison is “very optimistic about more megaraptoran discoveries… Piece by piece, we are learning more about this very mysterious group of dinosaurs.”
Megaraptorans were believed to originate from Asia, before migrating to Europe and Africa. Excitingly, “there was a new species of megaraptoran from South America announced only a few days ago.”
Part of the specimen's braincase had been discovered at Sudmoor Point, southwest Isle of Wight, and acquired by The Natural History Museum (NHM) in 1924, but the Museum had overlooked the possibility of the fossil belonging to a new species for over a century.
Morrison stated, “It is not uncommon that new species are discovered from existing specimens or collections”, which allows researchers to “re-discover” new species from existing museum collections.
“Multiple different animals that were once thought to be one species, turn out to represent multiple species as we better understand the variation between fossil species.”
Morrison intends to further his research on the Isle of Wight, which is anecdotally called The Dinosaur Island, “investigating the ecology, diets and ecosystems of the dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight including using isotopes.”
The Isle of Wight is famous for having a high percentage of chalk in the soil. Having excavated there before, Morrison appreciates the uniqueness of finding fossils on the Island, “it was a lot of fun, but we chose beds that had a great chance of yielding dinosaur fossils compared to the chalk.”
Professor Paul Barrett, the study’s senior author from NHM, stated:
“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.”