The Vector

Museum fossil identified as new Isle of Wight dinosaur

A skull fragment acquired in 1924 provides the first European evidence of megaraptorans.

A fossil kept in the Natural History Museum’s collections for almost a century has been identified as a new species of meat-eating dinosaur. Invictibellatrix amberina was a predator several metres long that lived on the Isle of Wight about 120 million years ago.

The species is the first megaraptoran dinosaur identified in Europe, according to a study published in Royal Society Open Science. Megaraptorans were agile, two-legged theropods related to tyrannosaurs, but their skulls were relatively slender and their forelimbs were unusually large.

The specimen is a partial section from the rear of a skull. It was acquired by the Natural History Museum in 1924 after being found on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight by amateur palaeontologist Reginald Walter Tooley. Researchers only recognised its significance after revisiting the museum’s historic collections.

The team used CT scanning to create a three-dimensional model of the fossil and its internal structure. They compared its features with braincases and skulls from tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs, raptors and other theropods. A combination of characteristics, including an oval opening associated with the spinal cord and an hourglass-shaped crest, led them to classify it as a new species.

The museum describes Invictibellatrix as roughly the size of a large tiger. Estimates based on related animals suggest it was several metres long and around human height at the hip. Its precise appearance and behaviour cannot be observed directly from the fossil, although the researchers say related megaraptorans may have had feather-like coverings and used their claws to catch smaller prey.

The discovery also bears on a wider question about how megaraptorans spread. Fossils from other members of the group have been found in Asia, South America, Australia and Antarctica, but the absence of European examples had left a gap in a proposed route. The authors argue that the Isle of Wight fossil supports movement through Europe, although the precise family relationships of megaraptorans remain debated among palaeontologists.

The name Invictibellatrix amberina combines a Latin expression meaning unconquered female warrior with a reference to amber found in the rocks where the fossil was discovered. The researchers say the new species shows why museum collections can still produce discoveries long after the original fieldwork has ended.

The study is a published paper in a journal rather than a preprint. No independent replication of its classification has yet been reported, so its interpretation will remain open to further comparison as more megaraptoran fossils are found.

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