Scientists have discovered what they believe to be a new species of theropod dinosaur – making it a close relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex. A group of researchers said they had recently discovered rare bones in the UK that appear to be related to the iconic species.
Paleontologists at the University of Southampton said they recently analyzed four bones on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of mainland England. The bones are from the neck, back and tail of the new dinosaur, named Vectaerovenator inopinatus.
The Vectaerovenator inopinatus, which is thought to have grown to 13 meters long, orbited the Earth during the Cretaceous, about 115 million years ago. Scientists believe it is a theropod, a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that typically ran on two legs rather than on four.
Trudie Wilson
The dinosaur was named for the large spaces of air in some of its bones – a trait that helped scientists connect it to theropods, the researchers said. The “air sacs”, which are also found in modern birds, were extensions of the lungs of the animals that probably helped with breathing in making the skeleton.
“We were struck by how hollow this animal was – it’s riddled with airspace,” lead author Chris Barker, a PhD student at the university, said in a press release. “Parts of the skeleton must have been quite delicate.”
Researchers said that all fossils found were probably from the same individual animal, which belonged to a previously unknown species of dinosaur. They called the discovery a ‘rare find.’
“The record of theropod dinosaurs from the ‘mid’ Cretaceous in Europe is not that great, so it has been really exciting to increase our understanding of the variety of dinosaur species from this time,” said Barker.
Darren Naish
The university said the bones were discovered in 2019 by individuals and families, all of whom donated their findings to the nearby dino museum.
“The joy of finding the bones we discovered was absolutely fantastic,” Robin Ward, an amateur fossil hunter who found one of the fossils, told the university. “I thought they were special and so did they when we visited Dinosaur Isle Museum. They immediately knew this was something rare and asked if we could donate them to the museum to be fully explored.”
“It looked different from marine reptile vertebrae I’ve encountered in the past,” James Lockyer, who still found one of the fossils, told the university. “I was looking for a place at Shanklin and was told and read that I would not find much there. However, I always make sure I search the areas that others do not, and on this occasion it has paid off well.”
The new fossils will be on display at the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown on the Isle of White, which is known as one of the best locations in Europe to find dinosaur remains. The researchers’ findings will be published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.
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