Researchers believe that they have found the biggest predatory dinosaur fossil which they described as a "big-bruiser." The fossil was unearthed Portugal and measures 32-foot long.
The group led by Christophe Hendrickx, a Ph.D. student from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal, found that the relic they were looking at belongs to a dinosaur called Torvosaurus guyneri.
A Torvosaurus guyneri is believed to be a related species of Torvosaurus tanneri, which inhabits in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It could have moved to Europe when the continents were still connected as part of the supercontinent Pangaea.
However, upon closer look, the 10-meter long predator didn't resemble T. tanneri at all. Its upper jaw, for one, had less blade-shaped teeth. Its bone and tail vertebrae varied. These findings suggest a new species.
The 3.5 to 4.5-kilogram dinosaur was part of a group called megalosaurs, which are characterized as two-legged meat-eaters. This species is little understood as they are fewer than their prey. But Hendrickx noted that though they are smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex, it looked closely similar to each other. Additionally, T. gurneyi is also covered with a light fuzz - similar to T. rex.
The new found species, which was dug out from the fossil-rich Lourinhã Formation in west-central Portugal, had heavily-muscled forearms with terrifying claws, thick legs, and elongated skulls that was best for biting its prey.
T. gurneyi "probably would've taken a chunk out of its prey, sat back, and waited for it to die," said Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, to National Geographic.
"This is the largest KNOWN land predator in European history-[it's] always important to keep that qualifier," said Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., a vertebrae paleontologist at the University of Maryland, to National Geographic.
Further details about this discovery can be read on the March 5 issue of PLOS ONE.
