Paleontologists may have discovered a new species of dinosaur—even though its fossil no longer exists.
Researchers in Munich, Germany, claim to have identified a new species of large predatory dinosaur from modern Egypt in a surprising way. As detailed in the January 14 study published in the journal PLOS oneresearchers studied the 95-million-year-old reptile in archival photographs from before World War II.
“It is likely that the dinosaur fauna of North Africa was much more diverse than we previously thought. This work shows that it can pay off for paleontologists to dig not only in the ground, but also in old archives,” explained Oliver Rauhut from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, who participated in the study, at the institution. statement.
In 1914, fossil collector Richard Markgraf unearthed the original partial skeleton in Egypt’s Bahariya oasis. He sent the remains to paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach in Munich, where they were stored 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 carnivorous dinosaurs that lived in North Africa about 99 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. Until paleontologist Maximilian Kellermann, a master’s student at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, discovered more archival photos of the fossil from 1914. The photographs showed parts of the fossil’s skull, spine and hind legs and revealed something unexpected.
“What we saw in the historical pictures surprised us all. The Egyptian dinosaur fossil shown there is significantly different from the more recent Carcharodontosaurus finds in Morocco. Therefore, Stromer’s original classification was incorrect,” said Kellermann, who led the study. “Here we have identified a completely different, previously unknown predatory dinosaur species and given it a name Tameryraptor margraves.”
“Ta-mery” is the ancient Egyptian name for Egypt meaning “beloved land,” according to the study, and raptor means “thief” in Latin, so Tameryraptor means “thief from the beloved country”. “Markgrafi”, on the other hand, pays tribute to the fossil collector.
Together with Elena Cuesta, also from the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Rauhut and Kellermann determined from the photographs that T. Markgrafi it would have been about 33 feet (10 m) long, making it one of the largest known carnivores to have walked the Earth, and had a noteworthy nose horn as well as symmetrical teeth. They also found that the giant reptile is related to the North African one Carcharodontosaursthe group of dinosaurs in which it was originally categorized, as well as the South American one Carcharodontosaurs and Metriacanthosaurs— a group of predatory dinosaurs from Asia.
“However, a more comprehensive assessment of the Cretaceous predatory dinosaur fauna from Bahariya Oasis would require finding more fossils from the site,” added Rauhut.
However, it is worth asking how accurately a new species can be defined from sketches and old black and white pictures. In the study, the researchers themselves admit that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature usually does not recommend “designating material that the author knows only from descriptions and illustrations, but has not studied firsthand.” The team would not even be able to confirm the date of the fossil. However, “we think this is such an exceptional case where a nomenclature act is justified,” they added, pointing to official exceptions within the recommendations.
Perhaps future excavations will one day find physical evidence T. Markgrafi. For now, this could be another happy example old photos lead scientists to a new discovery.