Student discovers new dinosaur
by Bart B. Van Bockstaele.
Steve Brusatte, a British student of the University of Bristol has discovered a new species of carnivorous dinosaur. It turns out to be one of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs ever discovered.
, a leading Dutch scientific blog, reports that the name of the beast is
Carcharondontosaurus iguidensis. Its head is nearly two metres long and its teeth are at least 10 cm long. Steve Brusatte, a masters student at the University of Bristol was the first to recognize the animal as a new species. The fossils of the animal were dug up in 1997 in Niger by a team led by famous dino hunter Paul Sereno.
Sereno, Brusatte and their colleagues are publishing an article describing the find in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Carcharondontosaurus fragments have been found before, in Egypt and Morocco. However, the ones from Niger are so very different from other described species, that Brusatte is convinced that these are bones of a previously unknown species. These animals have walked the earth around 95 million years ago. At the time, there were also other carnivorous dinosaurs in the Sahara, such as 18 metre long
Spinosaurus and 9 metre long
Abelisauraus. 9 metres doesn’t sound like very much in the world of giant dinosaurs. However, think of it: would you really like to encounter one while doing your Christmas shopping?
Student discovers new dinosaur
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