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Paleontologists may have discovered a new species of dinosaur, even if its fossil no longer exists.
Researchers in Munich, Germany, say they have identified a new species of large predatory dinosaur from modern Egypt in a surprising way. As detailed in January 14 to study published in the newspaper PLOS oneresearchers studied the 95-million-year-old reptile in archival photographs from before World War II.
“Presumably, the dinosaur fauna of North Africa was much more diverse than we thought before. This work shows that it can be worthwhile for paleontologists to dig not only in the ground, but also in old archives”, Oliver Rauhut from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, who participated in the study, explained in the institution. declaration.
In 1914, fossil collector Richard Markgraf excavated the original partial skeleton in Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis. He sent the remains to paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach in Munich, where they were kept in the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology in the Old Academy. Stromer designated the dinosaur as a member of the genus Carcharodontosaurusa group of massive meat dinosaurs that lived in North Africa about 99 million to 94 million years ago.
Thirty years later, an Allied air raid on Munich bombed the Old Academy, destroying parts of the collection, including the so-called. Carcharodontosaurus. The only remains were illustrations of the bones, a few photographs and Stromer’s notes. That is, until paleontologist Maximilian Kellermann, a master’s student at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, discovered more archival photos of the fossil from 1914. The photos depict parts of the fossil’s skull, the spines, and hind legs, and they revealed something unexpected.
“What we saw in the historical images surprised us all. The Egyptian dinosaur fossil represented here differs significantly from the more recent Carcharodontosaurus found in Morocco. Stromer’s original classification was so wrong,” said Kellermann, who led the study “Here we have identified a completely different, previously unknown species of predatory dinosaur and named it Tameryraptor markgrafi.”
“Ta-mery” is an ancient Egyptian name for Egypt that means “beloved land,” according to the study, and raptor means “thief” in Latin, for that matter. Tameryraptor means “thief from the beloved land”. “Markgrafi”, on the other hand, pays homage to the fossil collector.
Together with Elena Cuesta, also from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Rauhut and Kellermann determined from the photographs that T. markgrafi It would have measured about 33 feet (10 m), making it one of the largest carnivores known to have walked the Earth, and had a noteworthy nose horn as well as symmetrical teeth. They also determined that the giant reptile was related to North Africa Carcharodontosaursthe group of dinosaurs that was originally categorized as, and also South America Carcharodontosaurs and Metriacanthosaurs– a group of predatory dinosaurs from Asia.
“However, a more complete assessment of the Cretaceous predatory dinosaur fauna from the Bahariya Oasis will require the recovery of more fossils from the site,” added Rauhut.
However, it is worth questioning how accurately a new species can be defined from sketches and old black and white images. In the study, the researchers themselves admit that the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature usually recommends against the “designation of material that the author knows only from descriptions and illustrations, but has not studied first hand”. The team could not even confirm the date of the fossil. However, “we think that this is such an exceptional case where a nomenclatural act is justified”, they added, pointing to the official exceptions in the recommendations.
Perhaps future excavations will one day find physical evidence of T. markgrafi. For now, this could be another happy example old photos that lead scientists to a new discovery.
